Latest news June 9, 2006 Report from the XXVIII OSTIV Congress The first presentation of the XXVIII OSTIV Congress was “Aerodynamic Design of the Open Class Sailplane Concordia” by Johannes Dillinger and Loek Boermans, presented by Johannes. This was a very interesting look at the design of Dick Butlers new open class sailplane. The work has resulted in a 28 m span glider that has the remarkable wing-loading range of 39 kg/m2 to 62 kg/m2. The design and construction of this sailplane is a real challenge, hopefully demonstrating that further progress in the Open Class is possible and affordable.
The next presentation was ”Aerodynamic and Cross-Country Flight Performance Analysis of Diana-2 Sailplane” by Krzysztof Kubrynski. This presentation dealt with the aerodynamic design of the Diana-2. The use of modern aerodynamic tools applied to the classic sailplane design process was demonstrated. Likewise the predicted cross-country performance was used to help guide the design process. Of particular interest was the use of pilot flight logs to “back out” the optimum wing loadings for maximum cross-country speeds. The effort has resulted in a very interesting and innovative sailplane.
After the break Milan Matejka presented “The Study of Influence of Active and Passive Methods of Control to the Boundary Layer,” co-authored by Lukas Popelka. In this presentation Milan gave an overview of available means of flow control, passive and active, that can influence transition and/or of the boundary layer. This particular study looked at the use of synthetic jets, that work by blowing and suckin at high frequencies to control the boundary layer, but without adding or subtracting any net flow. It was concluded that while passive methods are reasonably well understood and already in use, the development of a suitable adaptive control logic and actuators for synthetic jets remain a challenge.
Jan Himisch then presented the paper “Numerical Investigation in the Aerodynamics of Spiralling for a Glider,” co-authored by Stefan Melber-Wilkending and Karl-Heinz Horstmann. This work involved the use of Computational-Fluid Dynamicx (CFD) to model the three-dimensional aerodynamics of entire sailplane in turning flight, coupled with a specified turning flight-path trajectory. The simulation was then validated with flight-test measurements obtained using the SB-14 of Akaflieg Braunschweig. This work will continue and, thus far, apperas to be extremely promising.
After the afternoon break Runald Meyer presented his paper “Calculating the Drag-Coefficient CD of Infinite Plate and Cylinder with Added Objects in Ideal Fluids.” This was an interesting talk that introduced some new ideas explaining drag of blunt bodies.
The final presentation of the day “Ground Deployment of Parachute Recovery System” was given by Fred Hermanspann. In addition to the use of a parachute recovery system for airborne emergencies, Fred advocated the use of such systems for emergency situations that occur on the ground as well. In particular, a ground parachute deployment can help in dissipating energy as quickly as possible.
