What links on the Internet can help me design a glider?

I have to make a glider for a voc/tech class I have... we are here in the Internet Lab to find ideas for things such as design, wing span, etc. etc. If you could send me a link to a good for that sort of thing I would appreciate it.

From : Don Stackhouse

John, I'd suggest starting with the "Ask Joe and Don" section on our website. As far as wingspan goes, performance wise the more the better within the rules of the competition class you're designing for. You also have to consider transportability, storage, launch method (Hi-starts work ok for 2 meter models, bigger models usually do better on a winch, for hand launch we've standardized on 1.5 meters), radio equipment (if you want to use standard size servos, better think about 2 meter or larger), etc.; the practical constraints like these are usually the determining factors.

Other websites I'd recommend:

For low speed airfoils, Michael Selig's group at UIUC:
http://amber.aae.uiuc.edu/~m-selig/uiuc_lsat.html

Their airfoil data base is at:
http://amber.aae.uiuc.edu/~m-selig/ads.html

Martin Hepperle's website, airfoils plus a lot more:
http://beadec1.ea.bs.dlr.de/Airfoils/

For airfoil plotting software the best in my opinion is Eric Sander's CompuFoil:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/compufoil/

If you're interested in flying wings I'd suggest these:

B2 Streamlines (Bill and Bunny Kuhlman's page, books, programs and info):
http://www.halcyon.com/bsquared/

Andy MacDonald's website for r/c model flying wings:
http://www.csccs.com.au/~andy/

Doug Bullard's "Nurflugel" page ("nurflugel" is German for "only wing", or flying wing), probably the definitive page for full scale flying wing info:
http://www.teleport.com/~dbullard/html/nurflugel.html

In addition, most of these websites have links to other related sites.

I hope this helps, and good luck with your project! If you have any more specific questions just e-mail me, I'll see if I can help.

Don Stackhouse @ DJ Aerotech
djarotec@bright.net