StratoSail® Baloon Guidance System Wing Details
We have fabricated the full-scale wing and rudder for a prototype StratoSail® Balloon Guidance System (BGS). The following pictures show the completed wing. It is naturally very important to keep weight to an absolute minimum for balloon systems. The hanging arrangement of the wing helps keep the structural weight low because the load-bearing elements are working in tension rather than in bending. The weight of the wing is quite a bit greater than the aerodynamic forces since the air is so thin and the relative airspeed is quite low compared with aircraft.
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