Sailplane Class @ Penn State

American Falcon Information

Mating of the two sections of the fuselage occurred in Spring 2002

The American Falcon is one of three sailplanes on which the class has been working on during the past several years. This glider was donated to the course after the wing of another sailplane of this design had prematurely failed during a structural-load test. The manufacturers of the plane found that the wings could not withstand the maximum loading plus safety factor required by the FAA. The problem occurred at the wing's root rib, which is located at the wing/fuselage junction of the aircraft. The failure of the root rib has been a problem studied by several former design groups. Recommendations have been made by these groups and are currently being implemented in lab.

The Falcon is a kit plane; meaning the glider's major components arrived prefabricated. However, most of the control system and landing gear needs to be built. It is up to the class to actually assemble the glider. Most of this work is done during evening lab hours by different lab teams who specialize on a certain component. More information about current lab work and groups can be found in the lab groups section of this site.

Work continues on the Falcon fuselage