Hi Gerry,


Thanks for your response, Gilles. A bit of clarification, perhaps. This is
not really a design to fullfill a mission. It's more of a "why not"
exercise.

Understand

The very short wingspan is the only real design criteria, and it
is just my idea rather than a definite need anyone has.

OK. Just out of curiosity, is the short span intended for flight
"requirements" (landing between telephone poles...), or storage
considerations ? Not the same, of course, since for precise landings,
handling qualities may be of prime importance.

Or maybe is it just for the fun of short span ?


The MCR 01 is a
very interesting design, but with a wingspan of over 20 feet it doesn't fit
my plan. Consider that if you made it a 10 foot span biplane it would
perhaps fit the bill?? I could restate it this way, if you divided the 20
foot wingspan of the MCR 01 into two wings either tandem or stacked would it
provide similar performance? How about 4 10 foot wings with one foot chord?
I don't really know the answer, I'm just brainstorming to see if anyone else
knows the answer.

I believe that by stacking wings, you'll end up with a much different
airplane.
By the way, really short chord wings work very well, provided the design
is correct.
French aerodynamicist Michel Colomban designed the Cri Cri 10 ft span, 1
ft chord single seater 25 years ago, with really nice flight behavior.
His last project will fly shortly with about 1.5 ft chord.

I seem to remember having seen a really short span American design,
which flew in the fifties or sixties. That was in an old issue of
"Popular Mechanics"

Regards,
Gilles Thesee
Grenoble, France
http://contrails.free.fr