BLENDED WING/FIN MATERIAL

Ok, I need advice from the experts out there. I'm toying with a blended wing design. What to use ---lite-relitively---durable---going to have some compound curves so probably takes out balsa. I'm thinking foam core and glass overlay. I have tons of exp with that. Thought stringers and balsa strip overlay , sounds heavy. Don't want to go overboard with price so no cold rolled titaniun or clear aluminum here, but I don't mind the work and time. Think SR-71--F-16 type blending. Not going for any records here---D/E--likely clustered 2/3-----------Thoughts?

Balsa for rigidity covered with card stock/poster board for shape. If you've ever built the estes SR-71 you know what I'm getting at.

Just my two cents; I built a 'ripoff' shuttle (futuristically) with small canards and a blended wing about 15 yrs ago. I carved a balsa nose cone to shape (Think lifting body)and a cut down body tube slit length wise with about 1/3 removed for the fuse. It used ribs for the wing planform like you build up a r/c glider wing for silkspan/monocote, et al and I filled in the spaces with hobbylite filler,sanded the outside mold line to shape and soaked some thin ca over the top after it cured. The ribs dictated the contours as I sanded down to them and a little past so the ribs showed thru and then ca's again. a little more sanding and then I shot it with primer and sanded and primed a couple of times until it was glass. I think the white gloss top coat weighed more than the entire wing. It had a half a dozen successful flights and then I toasted the booster for it and since then it's survived being thrown around various boxes of junk in the garage ever since. aside from delicate fintips, rudder and canards (1/16 balsa) the wing is in remarkable shape still and could be refurbished to fly again. I get the light weight wall spackle now since hobbylite got so expensive if you can even find it anymore. Works just the same as as well. two cents contributed. Good luck with your build!

Go high density foam and glass. Add some carbon tow between the foam and glass for extra strength. You may also want to add a short carbon spar, but that depends on how you're attaching the wing and the clearance in the body tube.

Yep, I'm leaning towards the foam /glass path. I like the idea of using carbon stringers.A plus is that I've done a lot of that before so I'm familiar with it.Thanks for all the input---but don't stop---any and all Ideas are welcome and I like trying new stuff. This project is still in the concept stage, so we have a lot of time. One thing I have done in the past --built a few aircraft and car parts---was to build the foam core and cover it with glass--finished the outside and then melted out the foam core chemically. Left a nice part or a male plug for making female molds. Might work at our scale. ???