Flair 18

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Rigid-wing Models - The Flair


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History

The Flair was a design developed by Günter Rochelt in 1987. Featured on the cover of 'Drachenflieger' magazine in November 1987, The Flair was first conceived in 1984, but took some time to develop, with work on the fiberglass - Carbon - Kevlar airframe begun in Spring, 1987. After a few test flights, in which the performance was confirmed but the rudders were found to be somewhat ineffectual, Günter decided not to put the Flair into production, concluding that he could improve performance further with some changes to the design (which led to the Flair 30 , whose design goal was to reach a 30:1 glide ratio in a foot-launched aircraft.)

Flair Prototype Specifications

Area14.5 m^2
Span11.47 m
Aspect Ratio9
Double surface100%
Nose angle147°
Battensnone
WeightThe production model should be under 30 kg, considerably less than the overbuilt protoype
Packed size4.4 m x 0.8 m x 0.25 m
Setup timeAround 10 minutes
Min. pilot weightNo lower limit
Max. pilot weight, for +/- 6g165 kg
Max. pilot weight, for +/- 10g100 kg
Vmin<30 km/h
Vmax>100 km/h
Min. sink rate & 35 km/h0.6-0.7 m/s (120-140 ft/min)
Min. sink rate & 80 km/h2.5-3.0 m/s (500-600 ft/min)
Max. Glide ratio16-18:1 & 45 km/h
Pricecirca 15000 DM

Some Photos of the Flair

Note: all photos are © 'Drachenflieger' magazine.


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