57-80-10 Large Gap Seal

The gap seal system that we have developed for the EMG-6 electric motor glider is a substantial improvement over the traditional gap seal system used on most ultralights. The most common gap seal type system involves sewing a tab with Velcro onto the trailing edge of the wing and having a tab with the reverse Velcro sewn onto the leading-edge of the aileron. This is a great job at preventing the airflow from transitioning from the high-pressure lower surface of the wing to the lower pressure surface of the upper wing. In this case that’s the primary job of the traditional ultralight gap seal. However one of the downsides to this methodology is that it only deals with the problem of the transitioning airflow from the bottom to the top. The surfaces that the airflow is transitioning over at this juncture between the aileron in the wing is a fairly substantial gap as a result of the typical design of aluminum tubes spars join together with fork and eyebolt hinge system. These large round aluminum tubes create a substantial amount of drag even with the gap seals install. Our system that we have developed deals with both the transitioning airflow as well as the streamlining and drag reduction at this intersection between the aileron and the wing. We create a gap seal that completely fills the cavity between the aileron spar and the trailing edge spar. In addition our polyethylene foam gap seal is designed to be able to move with the aileron allowing for a smooth transition of airflow from both the bottom of the wing and the top of the wing independent of aileron position. The weight of the polyethylene foam gap seals is negligible. The gap seals are easy to install and remove and replaceable if needed. The gap seals are waterproof as they are manufactured from solid polyethylene foam pool noodles.

[su_spacer] Links in the builders database (Gap Seals)

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This is a video That we did some time back on the process of cutting the Gap Seals. The dies, technique, and the new solid-core pool noodles improved process substantially from when we made this video. That being said, this is very close to how we cut the gap seals today.

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7-15-2017 Update

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