Mastodawn

This #freecadfriday I've been working on the winglets again. Finally got a nice 3D printed core structure, designed in @freecad printed on my Prusa XL. It clicks together really nicely and is featherlight. I bond it into the carbon skins using strips of UD carbon, so it makes a lovely light and very rigid structure. The 3D print is just the support; it stops the carbon buckling so that it can be really thin. It took a few iterations to get to a design that I could be proud of!

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Avian Hang Gliders 4d ago

This has been an ongoing project, starting with an aero optimisation here: https://mstdn.business/@avian/115548043938995019

Avian Hang Gliders (@[email protected])

Attached: 2 images Winglets design optimised using #openvsp , final design with @[email protected] then the prototypes were (very sparse!) 3D printed and skinned with carbon (production versions will be full carbon mouldings). Now flight tested (will tweak the optimiser a little to avoid the small area of speartion you can see in the tuft testing). More details about the optimisation in this post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/winglet-135459661 #freecadfriday

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Avian Hang Gliders

Then mould making here:
https://mstdn.business/@avian/115859984109610838
Now the support structure to go inside it is the final part

Avian Hang Gliders (@[email protected])

Attached: 4 images Used @[email protected] to design the moulds for the winglet. So printing the patterns (Prusa XL) to make moulds from which eventually the carbon parts will be made from. There's a pair of winglets, each mould is in 2 halves (plus some small loose pieces), the pattern for each half is printed in two sections and the print takes nearly 2 days. So about 2 weeks of solid 3D printing time to do the full set.

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