To: Lyle . The person you might want to contact is Michael Selig ,
Department of Aerospace Engineering - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois 61801. He may be one of the worlds most knowledgeable aerodynamicists about model size low Reynolds numbers airfoils. It would seem that he would provide you with the best advise on setting up your test program. You can find his site online UIUC airfoil Data.
To Gary and Lyle :
There has been wind tunnel testing on symmetrical stab and elevators that you can read about in Martin Simons book "Model Aircraft Aerodynamics".
This is recomended reading even if you just want to dabble to understand things a little better. Martin Hepperles web site has good data and is worth a look.
You can also go online and download :
NACA Report No. 360 - "Pressure Distribution Over A Symmetrical Airfoil
Section With Trailing Edge Flap"
Please note* This report is not for model size low Reynolds numbers so we can only extrapolate its value for stunt size models.
The thing you have to understand is that nowhere else in the aerodynamic world do people use "Plain Flaps" (as opposed to extendable "Fowler" type flaps) to fly radical manuevers like we do in stunt.
This point was clearly brought home to me when I e-mailed the creator of Profili airfoil software. Profili has incorporated X-foil virtual wind tunnel as an optional feature. I wanted to ask Mr Duranti if it would work to scan in and test some stunt airfoils in X-foil. When I described what a stunt airfoil looked like and how it worked he thought it was the worst aerodynamic idea he had ever heard of and he didn't think X-foil would work. Guys here is a man who has worked and processed close to a thousand different kinds of airfoils but he had never heard of a stunt wing with a manuevering flap. We take the idea for granted but he an many other aerodynamic types have no frame of reference for what we do in stunt. So guys I just want you to know what you are dealing with when you examine aerodynamic data or talk aerodynamics with non-stunt folks because it may impact how applicable that data is to your needs.
Fortunately, for all of us some very bright guys like Bob Palmer, George Aldrich, Bill Netzeband, Bob Baron, Al Rabe , Ted Fancher and many others have extrapolated design ideas from published data and then they went out and did the hard work of testing and refining those ideas to make them work for our needs. I believe this was the point that Keith was making.
Lyle, an idea occured to me. you might try selling the idea that studying flapped stunt design airfoils and wings would be a first step in designing a small UAV that is capable of radical manuevering to survive in high threat enviornments. This might even turn up goverment funding and generate some real data for real stunt planes. Hey, It's just an idea.
Till Next Time,
Pat Robinson