Canuck
David Megginson
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2016
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We all have pet theories and stories about the reason for and the effect of Hershey Bar vs semi-tapered wings. I'm finally reading Terry Lee Rogers' The Cherokee Tribe, based on interviews with Fred Weick (the Cherokee's designer), and the reasons Weick actually gives for the two shapes are surprisingly mudane:
Hershey bar (Rogers paraphrasing a conversation with Weick): "The construction of the airplane was to be as simple as possible, with a straight wing, all ribs having the same shape..." in other words, keep costs down by having just one rib size to mass-produce.
Semi-tapered (quoting Weick directly): "Piper wanted a wing design which would improve stall characteristics and increase wingspan. This could be done by tapering the other half of the wing, the portion beyond the flaps, so that the tip chord was smaller than the root chord, and the load at the tip would be reduced." in other words, accept the extra production complexity of multiple rib sizes in exchange for slightly better roll control near the stall.
And that's it. Not nearly as dramatic as all of our ferociously-defended pet theories.
Hershey bar (Rogers paraphrasing a conversation with Weick): "The construction of the airplane was to be as simple as possible, with a straight wing, all ribs having the same shape..." in other words, keep costs down by having just one rib size to mass-produce.
Semi-tapered (quoting Weick directly): "Piper wanted a wing design which would improve stall characteristics and increase wingspan. This could be done by tapering the other half of the wing, the portion beyond the flaps, so that the tip chord was smaller than the root chord, and the load at the tip would be reduced." in other words, accept the extra production complexity of multiple rib sizes in exchange for slightly better roll control near the stall.
And that's it. Not nearly as dramatic as all of our ferociously-defended pet theories.
