Duckhawk wins 15 meter Nationals

[tonycondon]

The Windward Performance Duckhawk has won the 15 meter Nationals in Mifflin, PA. It was a weak weather contest with lots of landouts and no ridge days. The Duckhawk is the first American built sailplane to win a Nationals in a very long time and seems to be competitive in performance with all the best 15 meter racers from Europe. Somewhere around 50:1 best L/D with a wide range of wing loading available, and options for a stupid high Vne.

http://windward-performance.com/projects/duckhawk/

 

[Lance F]

An American sailplane winning 15M Nationals. Wow.
I looked at the specs of the souped up model. +11.0/-9.0 g. Good grief, that's more than a military fighter. Do you have to wear a G-suit to fly one.
Vne of 225kts! Wonder what the sink rate is at that speed.
And I haven't seen a non T-tail racer in a long time.

 

[tonycondon]

the high g limit is probably just a by-product of designing for stiffness to allow the high Vne. It should be an awesome ridge/wave machine. heard a guy from Windward joking (but not really) at the convention that on a good ridge day you would probably want to wear a mouthguard.