ENGELWING

       

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Engelwings are made by pinging tetrahedra together by their edges to form

a double wide chain.  The chain can be bent into a loop in either direction.

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Fig. 317  Engelwing
click image to enlarge
 

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The Engelwing is identical to the Square-2 lattice structure shown in the
previous lesson.  It takes advantage of the inherent instability imparted to
the lattice when it was sliced out of the octet truss parallel to the (100)
plane thus cutting the octahedra in two and exposing their square shaped
cross sections. This allows the structure to flex in and out unless it is braced
with a diagonal strut or a bracing plate is fastened to the face of the square.

As the wing flexes each tetrahedron acts as both a hinge and a lever that

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forces adjoining tetrahedra to flex.  You can build Engelwings from regular
tetrahedra made with equilateral triangles, and irregular tetrahedra made

with different combinations of the of the Polymorf triangles.  This lets you

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make tapered, bird-like wings for example.

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click image to enlarge

eagle.gif

Fig. 318  Tapered Engelwing

 

 

Engelwing models

 
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eaglet.gif

bird.gif

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Sammy

swoop

small ani. 5K

ani. 6K

larger ani. 14K

 

Click image to enlarge.  Click text below image to see it animated,

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