Hi Folks,

My impression, from looking at photos of Carbon Dragons already built, is that the pilot's field of view is restricted by having his head more or less inside the wing. His field of vision is blinkered by the root-ribs forward of the spar.

If one were to angle the nose section of the root ribs outwards from the spar to the leading edge at the nose of the second rib the field of view would be considerably improved. That 'cut away' section of the leading edge could then be skinned with very thin plexiglass or other clear polycarbonate material. Granted the view might not be brilliant but it would be a big improvement, giving the pilot a few additional seconds of other air traffic in the column.

My main concern would be to know how much torsional/twist stress the leading edge is carrying between the root rib and the second rib.

Good or bad idea?

Phil.

PS - I've updated my wing calculations spreadsheet after fixing a couple of errors that made my figures and spar design a wee bit conservative. My thanks to Kenny for causing me to re-examine them.