Many years ago I when I was working on the optimal airfoil for N56ML,
I called Stu Robinson (one of the two "designers" of the KR1 and KR2) to
ask him where he got the detailed specifications for the RAF 48 that is
detailed in the KR plans. His answer was that it was used on the
Taylor Monoplane, and that and many other details of the Monoplane were
"borrowed" for the KR1. Actually the Monoplane used the RAF45 airfoil
(if you can believe the "InterWeb").
That's not to take anything from Rand/Robinson, as the big thing they
brought to the table was "composite construction".....foam and Dynel
(which quickly become fiberglass). Whatever RAF airfoil it was, that
series of airfoils was developed LONG ago, and I could find NOTHING
about its characteristics at the time. Airfoil development has come a
long way since then, hence KRnet members' 1994 effort to design a better
airfoil for our planes. See http://www.krnet.org/as504x/ for that
interesting story, and all the gory details of the airfoils that most of
us are using today when building a KR series airplane. Download it for
free at http://www.krnet.org/as504x/templates.html. I can probably
remove all the "USE AT YOUR OWN RISK" stuff from that page, as there are
a LOT of planes flying these airfoils now, and these airfoils are being
designed into the FreeBird as well.
And for those wondering what "Dynel" is, think coarse, white, stiff
burlap! Jim Faughn's KR2 is made of that, so I get to see some every
time I repair a composite piece of it!
Mark Langford
m...@n56ml.com
http://www.n56ml.com
Huntsville, AL
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