On Sunday, February 11, 2018 at 12:52:05 PM UTC-6, wrote:
How about one that flys backwards?

A canard gives lift instead of the horizontal stab pushing the tail down.

Also gives a nice high place to put the FES.

Also might put more crush space in front of the pilot.

Burt Rutan tried it, and won an SSA contest with his design - mostly because he was Burt Rutan, not because the glider (Solitaire) was any good - because it basically sucked as a glider and was hideous to look at to boot.

Think about the aerodynamics of gliders a bit (in thermalling flight) and it's easy to see why.

And by the way, in cruise, my LS-6's tail isn't pushing the tail down, either - and with the CG adjusted correctly isn't pushing down much while thermalling either. Look up "decalage" if this doesn't make any sense.

Many of the ideas in this interesting thread have been tried: Telescoping wings, variable geometry, flexible skins (there are two Speed Astirs at our field with that feature!).

I'd like to see new, automated building procedures and materials that would result in stronger, lighter, more accurately profiled (and re-profiled, when needed) gliders. Active BLC could add a few percent performance, but why? Keep it simple, cost down, light enough for a small FES to get you home, and revamp the cockpit to better display all the data that is available (air data, weather, other aircraft, etc.). My idea panel would have one big display with everything on it for navigation, tactics and weather, and all performance data (airspeed, altitude, attitude, climb, AOA, STF, etc) projected on the visor of a lightweight, positionally tracked helmet. Directional audio so you can hear where the center of the thermal is. Icons showing where all the traffic (FLARM, ADS-B, PCAS) is in the vicinity, as well as navigation and thermal markers (where someone else just climbed).

Ballistic chutes of course, so comfort is increased.

Kirk
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