Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Interesting aircraft design - LH10

This plane has some of the elements I have been thinking of an efficient aircraft to have:

http://www.lhaviation.com/site_frame/bases_marges/index.htm

Specs promise 200 kts with 100 hp. Lets see. The plane has already flown, but not yet tests that determine top speed.

According to my calculations, providing they are right, this is not that much out of place. This plane in fact, is pretty much like a two place Vmax Probe. If the airflow stays laminar in the fuselage and wings, the 200 kts might be doable. The relation of stall speed and top speed of the 3.77 projected for this plane is a reachable value. Very interesting to see how it performs and if it does not go 200 kts, why. According to what I have read and would estimate, the drag coefficient of the LH10 should be very small unless there is something wrong that causes the airflow to separate.

The view from the LH10 seems to be as spectacular than from a glider. Would be excellent aircraft for flying for fun.

The airfoil used on this aircraft is particularly interesting. Reasons:
- E.g. NLF414F produces very low drag and very high glide ratio, but not without restrictions - the area of usable Reynold's number is limited which limits the chord of the wing to a rather long one, and the wings of the LH10 would already be below that limit. They say that it is a wind turbine airfoil. I haven't tried simulating the wind turbine airfoils yet, it has not occurred to me that they could be actually be useful on aircraft. However, this seems to prove that this was wrong assumption, and they are in the UIUC database for a reason. Lots of airfoils to investigate...

2 comments:

PGRDAERO said...

The LH10 will need 200 hp minimum to fly 200 kts...
In addition, what about the safety and reability of the shaft...for how many hours...ouchhh
you need to study history before doing calculations...
Just compare aircrafts perfs and specs, your judgment will be more realistic...
havagood and safety flights
Pierre

PGRDAERO said...

The LH10 will need 200 hp minimum to fly 200 kts...
In addition, what about the safety and reability of the shaft...for how many hours...ouchhh
you need to study history before doing calculations...
Just compare aircrafts perfs and specs, your judgment will be more realistic...
havagood and safety flights
Pierre