Dick Butler

Building The Wing Control System

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No one could have predicted the time and complexity involved in designing, building and installing the Concordia flight control systems. As discussed in preceding chapters, very few compromises were made in the Concordia wing design from the viewpoint of aerodynamics and handling qualities. On paper it was a lot of fun designing a supership and not having to worry about production time, associated costs, and being able to market the plane at a competitive price. In reality a lot of the design choices that were made to maximize competition performance came back to haunt us in the building and installation of controls.

Building The Wing Spar Shear Web

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The most critical area of shear web construction is the region between the main wing pins. Between the main wing pins the entire wing load must be counteracted through the shear web. Resolving this enormous load not only requires many layers of glass, known as “windings,” around the spar but also requires a large amount … Read more

Building The Wing Spar Flanges

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In any sailplane, spar construction is critical for ensuring the structural integrity of the wing and overall safety of the sailplane. The spar design for Concordia is pushing the limits of what is possible while adhering to the CS22 design criteria. The design of a 28 meter span sailplane with a very thin airfoil and … Read more

Building The Wing Skin

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Simultaneously with the build of the fuselage and vertical stabilizer, Christian Streifeneder and his father Hanko were busy in Germany building wing molds for Concordia. In hindsight one of the smart decisions made by Butler and Waibel was to convince the Streifeneders to be a part of the Concordia team and let them build the … Read more

Building The Vertical Stabilizer

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The vertical stabilizer was constructed in a female mold made from low density foam. The foam mold was cut with a hot wire process using aluminum templates with airfoil coordinates generated by the Delft Institute of Technology. All wing and vertical stabilizer templates were cut using an NC laser cutter. The structure of the vertical … Read more

Building The Fuselage

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[Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles by Dick and his collaborators on the construction of each major component of the Concordia. There’s much more to come. Watch this space!] The man-hours required to build a prototype sailplane with the level of complexity of Concordia is staggering. Like most large prototype … Read more

Building The Horizontal Stabilizer

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As noted earlier in the design section when discussing handling qualities, the horizontal stabilizer was sized using criteria involving a dimensionless coefficient known as the horizontal tail volume coefficient. Based on known good handling qualities of other sailplanes and the value of their tail volume coefficients, one can size the horizontal tail for Concordia. With … Read more

The Design of a Competition Sailplane

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The design of an open class sailplane from a competition pilot’s viewpoint is relatively simple. Such a glider should have outstanding straight line and thermaling performance, good handling qualities, and a comfortable cockpit. The pilot may also want an engine since outlanding a 28 to 31 meter span ship can often get very interesting as well as putting himself and his placing in the competition at risk. Unfortunately each of these criteria is normally compromised in the end when designing a sailplane for production or, to put it more directly, when the business side of the equation is considered.