Stanley Nomad
{{Short description|American glider}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2022}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2022}}
| {{Infobox aircraft begin
| name=Nomad | image=Stanley Nomad NX20645.jpg | caption= }}{{Infobox aircraft type | type=Glider | national origin=United States | manufacturer= | designer=Robert M. Stanley | first flight=1938 | introduced=1938 | retired= | status=sole example in the National Air and Space Museum | primary user= | more users= | produced= | number built= 1 | developed from= | variants with their own articles= }} |
The Stanley Nomad is an American mid-wing, V-tailed, single seat glider that was designed and constructed by Robert M. Stanley in 1938.Said, Bob: 1983 Sailplane Directory, Soaring Magazine, page 64, Soaring Society of America November 1983. USPS 499-920{{cite web|url = http://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A19800123000|title = Stanley Nomad|accessdate = 27 June 2011|last = National Air and Space Museum |authorlink = |year = n.d.}}
Design and development
Stanley designed the Nomad between 1935 and 1938, while serving in the US Navy, building it in the basement of a house that he shared with other sailors in San Diego, California. The aircraft was completed in June 1938.
The Nomad is of mixed construction, with a monocoque aluminium fuselage, a wooden cantilever wing with one spar and wooden tail surfaces. The wing and tail are all covered with doped aircraft fabric covering. The wing employs a NACA 23-018 airfoil at the wing root, transitioning to a NACA 23-012 at the wing tip. The original design had a conventional cruciform tail, but in 1939 this was replaced with one of the first V-tails used on any aircraft and the first employed on a sailplane. The landing gear is a monowheel.
Operational history
Stanley had never flown any glider when he entered the Nomad in the 1938 US Nationals, held in Elmira, New York. The Nomad's first flight was in the competition and Stanley completed all three parts of his silver badge on that first flight. On one contest flight he flew almost to New Jersey, which amazed the spectators and other competitors alike. After one out-landing a souvenir hunter stole his removable elevators, putting him out of the remainder of the competition.
Stanley brought the Nomad to the 1939 US Nationals and by then the conventional tail had been replaced with a V-tail. At that event he completed the first gold badge in the United States and on 3 July 1939 set a new US altitude record of {{convert|16400|ft|m|0|abbr=on}}, which was more than twice the previous record. On the following day, 4 July 1939, he broke the altitude record again, climbing to {{convert|17284|ft|m|0|abbr=on}} climbing inside a cumulonimbus cloud. He finished second in the Nationals, even though he did not complete the last task.
Later while flying aerobatics in the Nomad after a poorly completed wing repair the wing failed in flight and Stanley bailed out successfully. The aircraft's remains were sold, the new owner repaired the aircraft and Stanley bought it back from him.
Stanley went on to become president of the Soaring Society of America in 1940, but never designed another glider. He worked as the chief test pilot for Bell Aircraft Corporation during the Second World War and in that capacity made the first flight in the Bell XP-59, the first jet-powered aircraft produced in the USA.
Stanley's wife, Katherine N. Stanley, donated the aircraft to the National Air and Space Museum in 1978 after Stanley's death in 1977. For a time in the 1980s it was on loan to the National Soaring Museum, but in 2011 was on display and suspended from the ceiling of the Boeing Aviation Hangar at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.{{Cite web|url = http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=20645|title = Make / Model Inquiry Results NX20645|accessdate = 27 June 2011|last = Federal Aviation Administration|authorlink = |date=June 2011}}
Aircraft on display
Specifications (Nomad)
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|wing area sqft=175
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|aspect ratio=18.5:1
|airfoil=root: NACA 23-018, tip: NACA 23-012
|empty weight kg=
|empty weight lb=360
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|gross weight lb=543
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|glide ratio=27:1 at {{convert|44|mph|km/h|0|abbr=on}}
|sink rate ms=
|sink rate ftmin=174
|sink rate note= at {{convert|41|mph|km/h|0|abbr=on}}
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|wing loading lb/sqft=3.1
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See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?max_w=540&id=http://airandspace.si.edu/webimages/collections/full/A19800123000cp05.jpg Photo of the Nomad in the NASM]
- [http://www.ae.illinois.edu/m-selig/ads/afplots/naca23018.gif NACA 23-018 airfoil]
- [http://www.ae.illinois.edu/m-selig/ads/afplots/naca23012.gif NACA 23-012 airfoil] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121009053731/http://www.ae.illinois.edu/m-selig/ads/afplots/naca23012.gif |date=October 9, 2012 }}
Category:1930s United States sailplanes