The aerodynamics of a towplane in a kiting glider situation

On Mon, 18 May 2020 09:11:51 -0700, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:

I fail to see the rational of designing a system that places a tow rope
in front of the the tail feathers. Aren't you are just changing one
failure mechanism for another?
Confused

At least some of the C47 glider tugs did just that.

An illustrated article: "GLIDER SNATCHING", THE AEROPLANE, JUNE 15, 1945
shows detail of the arrangement used to recover Hadrian troop gliders
from France, often with casualties on board.

The C47 had an electric winch with a variable braking system mounted at
the front of the troop/cargo area with the cab;e exiting from the
underside just behind the wing root fairings.

The glider being recovered had a short row rope ending on a large loop of
nylon rope supported on two light poles on front of the glider. The C47
did a low pass with a dangling hook, snagged the horizontal bit of the
rope between the poles and paid out line as the glider accelerated and
took off. Then the winch wound in the cable until the glider was at
normal towing distance and flew back to base towing the Hadrian.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68O_ZHCOjwk

The next video shows both conventional glider towing, with the line
attached to the extreme rear of the C47 fuselage, and snatching:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfYSmGl8io8


....so anybody who'd been snatched low tow for the whole flight.




--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org