DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF POLYHEDRAL SWEPT BACK HIGH WING CHUCK GLIDER FOR BETTER L/D RATIO

“It's not flying its falling in style.” The chuck gliders are the ones which do not require any kind of thrust force since these do not have any mechanical or electrical power supply to it. For flying of such gliders, the main focus must be given towards design, material selection and the aerodynamic forces acting on it. Thus, it is required to have a design, which can have an optimum lift-to-drag ratio with balancing wing loading. These are main performance parameters, which needs to be considered in order to make an efficient glider. With the preset constraints of maximum wing span of 50cm, as enlisted in competitive events across the globe, the glider ought to be designed, manufactured and analyzed having good range and endurance, to level up the competitions. For the designing factor, it is chosen to have high, polyhedral and elliptical wing configuration with a backward sweep of 9 – 12 degrees. The material chosen for the chuck glider is balsa wood. Along with these main wing configurations, empennage section is designed to have dihedral horizontal stabilizers and a slendered fuselage of 65cm. The geometrical CG of the glider is fixed at 25% of the fuselage length; further balanced using clay. The validated analysis of the glider was carried out in the calibrated sub-sonic Wind Tunnel and the values of lift, drag and pitching moment were tabulated using 3 point balance at various speeds in the range 0 – 25 m/s. Using this optimum lift-to-drag ratio was determined, leading to optimized range and endurance of glider. KEYWORDS: Chuck Gliders, Performance Parameters, Polyhedral and Elliptical Wing, Balsa Wood, 3 – Point Balance, Lift-to-Drag Ratio, Glide Range &and Endurance