"Bob Kuykendall" wrote in message
om...
Earlier, "Tanel" wrote:

...So the designer manufactures wing and fuselage
moulds to all producers who are able to manufacture
by licence exactly the same world class glider.

My thoughts exactly. It shouldn't matter much what is under the skin,
just the exterior profiles. Different manufacturers could offer
exterior finishes, treatments, interior enhacements, amenities, and
levels of completion according to what their customers are willing to
pay. They could use internal structures commensurate with their skills
and competencies. But the ships would all have the same shapes, and
would all perform about the same.

I would further postulate a monoclass that allows freedom of exterior
profile in some areas of potential development. Specifically, I'd like
to see the outboard 200mm of wing span implemented at the
participants' option. That would allow for continued development of
winglet design, and also for expression of individuality. It would
also, to some tiny degree, allow for optimization for different
conditions. And the participant could even extend the span at that
point to improve their ship's performance for non-competition events.

And, responding to Mark Boyd's question from another thread, I believe
that the cost difference between 13m and 15m is certainly measurable
(all other things being equal, of course), but that with modern
commercially-available materials the difference is not prohibitvely
great, and that 15m is as good a monoclass span as any. My old HP-11
(1960 technology, 50-foot span, poorly sealed) had about the same
general performance as a PW-5, and there was many, many a time that I
wished for a few more points of glide to make the difference between
driving home and driving it home.

Thanks, and best regards to all

Bob K.
http://www.hpaircraft.com/hp-24

Take it a step further:
Just use a standard wing mold. (Or, as in your suggestion, inner wing, with
span limitation for competition).
The wing is the thing. People have done all sorts of strange things to
1-26's (lowered canopies, faired wheels, taken the wheel off entirely and
flown with just a skid), and the L/D still stayed about the same
The variations in fuselage, empennage, materials, etc give people a shot at
"optimizing" their ship, and manufacturers a hook for for their advertising
(assuming there's ever more than one) but I bet they'd converge pretty
quickly. Small but real competitive advantages might actually exist, in
which case the super-competitive pilots will sell their ships to buy the
more competitive models, putting more ships in the class, and entry-level
ships on the market.
I believe something similar to that has happened in some of the sailing
monoclasses.

Homebuilders could buy a wing set and build the remainder however they
liked.

Tim Ward