On the other hand if you compare landing speed for landing speed it

is hard

to beat a conventional airplane with Fowler flaps. Not easy to put

Fowler flaps on a Rutan canard. To get the same landing speed a
canard needs a lot more

wing area and that is a lot more drag at high speeds.

Paul Lamar

Or go to a 3 lifting surface a/c which supposedly has the best of both
worlds.  Vance what do you think about these 3 wing a/c?

Jarrett Johnson

Matt Prather wrote:

Note, migrated topic...

I like idea of the Peterson STOL 182:

http://www.260se.com/index.html

Or the Piaggio (though it looks like a caricature of a catfish) P180:

http://www.piaggioamerica.com/

I think flaps can be put on a canard - I think the Starship has them.  To
utilize
the extra lift coeficient of the main wing, the canard has to have something
that either increases its moment, or further increase its lift coeficient.
 The
Starship has a swinging canard, I believe with an interlock to the flap
system.
If the flaps are out, the canard swings forward.  Movement of either one
of the
mechanisms without the other also moving would likely be unsafe (at least
at low airspeeds).  It has been on my long time todo list to build a
flying model
with swing canard and flaps.  Maybe I'll finally get to it.

Fowler flaps are not a Rutan kind of thing though.  Too many moving
parts, or something like that.  That's probably why we haven'tseen them
on a canard.  Keep in mind that the original Varieze didn't have ailerons...
Nobody besides Rutan has really designed a modern canard.
Regards,

Matt-
-- 

Paul Lamar
 
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