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Old July 19th 18, 07:44 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
BruceGreeff
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Posts: 184
Default AK-X swept wing sailplane

On 2018/07/19 06:45, Eric Greenwell wrote:
Charlie Quebec wrote on 7/17/2018 4:37 PM:
Just another waste of time and effort on the flying wing concept, and
as usual, it will be worse than a normal sailplane of the same span area.

Students pursuing the same thing the manufacturers are pursuing seems a
like bigger waste of time and effort. They are supposed to learning, and
working on difficult problems without the need to be profitable sounds
like a good way to achieve that learning.

Hi Eric

You have to think about this in the context of the German education system.
These projects are not part of the formal syllabus. They are voluntary,
additional projects.
The best compete to be able to participate in the AKAVlieg programmes,
where they get to apply their coursework to the practical
industrialisation - DesignBuildEvaluate of their ideas.

Consequently they turn out engineers with decent practical experience in
leading edge manufacture. Not a bad approach - especially considering
the direct engagement with peers, and product manufacturers, and
academics. These engineers and scientists also get to test their
product. Good for focussing the mind.

I doubt there is any pressure, expectation or ambition for their
experimental design to be a commercial success, Or even necessarily to
advance flight performance. It may be primarily about fabrication
techniques. This one could well be about controlability... Who knows.

Empirically he approach seems to work. The most recent, successful
startup in glider manufacture -Jonker Sailplanes uses exactly this model.

Bruce