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Pelican Hang Glider Project

Postby JoeF » Tue Oct 13, 2026 8:06 pm

Key link for Bill Pain's Pelican
HERE

Bill Pain bio here.

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Re: Pelican Hang Glider Project

Postby JoeF » Wed Oct 14, 2026 8:35 pm

In one caption Bill has published the following statement:
F3 177 fitted with the dog leg semi enclosed crosstube. The frame and sail can be set up in either configuration, straight exposed crosstube or pelicanised with the dog leg spar.


I enjoy Bill's word "pelicanised". :salute:

I openly asked him for a link to some image that show full well the form of his "dog leg" semi-enclosed crosstube. I have yet only seen the exposed section while the dog-leg section stays covered up. Does anyone have a photo of the bare dog-leg spar? TIA

The following clip is the closest that I have found of Bill Pain's exploration:
DogLegSparClipReBillPainPelicanization.jpg
DogLegSparClipReBillPainPelicanization.jpg (42.7 KiB) Viewed 591 times

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The spar is in axial compression. Historically the highly used spar is kept straight with designers desiring to keep the spar "in column" to address resistance to buckling under the axial compression. So, the dog-leg treatment is somewhat at odds to the long-lived trend for the involved spar. What might be the weight cost for the exploration? What trades are being chosen?

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Re: Pelican Hang Glider Project

Postby Bob Kuczewski » Thu Oct 15, 2026 10:46 pm

Pelican_Hack_Saw_5.jpg
Pelican_Hack_Saw_5.jpg (38.29 KiB) Viewed 140 times
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