scsmith
Well Known Member
Showing on today's front page is Bob Kuykendall's announcement that HP Aircraft is now offering short wingtips for RV 4,6,7,8 (and will fit Harmon Rockets too). These tips reduce wing wetted area by about 14 sq ft compared to the standard modern Van's tips, and by about 12 sq ft compared to the earlier Hoerner tips. The wing span is reduced 28" compared to Vans standard tips, and 16" compared to the older Hoerner tips.
I'm usually the last person on earth to want to reduce wing span, but to make our RVs faster at low/middle altitudes, it is about the only way to reduce wetted area. These tips have the least wetted area for a smooth shape that minimizes flow separation.
Shown here are the tips on Bob Mills' Rocket 6 at Reno, and trial-fitted to my RV-8.
You will see that these tips do not have provision for lights. That is in the works and will be available soon.
I did an informal market survey a few months ago that demonstrated a lot of interest. We have now shown that these tips are definitely faster on the Sport course at Reno. There was some discussion that they may not be faster on the Medallion course where the g loading is higher. Well, Skylor Piper, Sport 80 has tips very similar to these that he made and won the Sport Medallion race. Two others have essentially flat cut-off tips and are also running well on the Medallion course - but we hope to give those two an extra 2--3 mph with our tips very soon.
The remaining question is at what altitude does the performance trade-off between wetted area and span cross over so that the standard Vans tips would be better for cruise? My guess has been somewhere around 9,000 ft, but we will soon do the actual testing to answer that question. I will post the results here as soon as I have them.
You can order your set of wingtips from Bob Kuykendall at HP Aircraft, LLC by clicking at this link:
https://hpaircraftblog.wordpress.com/short-wingtips-for-rv-4-through-rv-8/
You can also always click on the small ad along the margin of "Previous Day's News"
I'm usually the last person on earth to want to reduce wing span, but to make our RVs faster at low/middle altitudes, it is about the only way to reduce wetted area. These tips have the least wetted area for a smooth shape that minimizes flow separation.
Shown here are the tips on Bob Mills' Rocket 6 at Reno, and trial-fitted to my RV-8.
You will see that these tips do not have provision for lights. That is in the works and will be available soon.
I did an informal market survey a few months ago that demonstrated a lot of interest. We have now shown that these tips are definitely faster on the Sport course at Reno. There was some discussion that they may not be faster on the Medallion course where the g loading is higher. Well, Skylor Piper, Sport 80 has tips very similar to these that he made and won the Sport Medallion race. Two others have essentially flat cut-off tips and are also running well on the Medallion course - but we hope to give those two an extra 2--3 mph with our tips very soon.
The remaining question is at what altitude does the performance trade-off between wetted area and span cross over so that the standard Vans tips would be better for cruise? My guess has been somewhere around 9,000 ft, but we will soon do the actual testing to answer that question. I will post the results here as soon as I have them.
You can order your set of wingtips from Bob Kuykendall at HP Aircraft, LLC by clicking at this link:
https://hpaircraftblog.wordpress.com/short-wingtips-for-rv-4-through-rv-8/
You can also always click on the small ad along the margin of "Previous Day's News"
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