Donald Reid wrote: >I am an engineer and an expert on airfoils and I know a lot about >materials, stress calculations, fatigue life and a few other >engineering things. A solid surface aluminum hinge is unconventional >but perfectly safe. The service life should be on the order of >10,000 hours (my estimate only). It will be much less likely to fail >in service than an aluminum propeller and you would not think twice >about flying behind one of those. > >Don Reid - donreid "at" peoplepc.com >Bumpass, Va > > Hi Don, Wouldn't an aileron, that was hinged with a flexible aluminum plate, be more susceptible to flutter at the speeds the current crop of KRs are attaining? If the hinge plate would always be constrained to a smooth arc then I would think it would be no better or worse than the current methods. But, if it could be excited into a buzzing condition where the hinge were assuming something approaching a sine wave I would think it could be even worse that the typical flutter scenario.
Steve Eberhart All the hinges on my plane use rod end bearings, Where, I suspect, Dr. Dean got the idea from in the first place.
