sprog

"sprog" is also a: user

(thing) by maxClimb (2.5 hr) (print) ? (I like it!) Wed Jun 27 2001 at 10:45:51

In hang gliding a sprog is an internal strut used to control sail twist on "topless" gliders instead of the reflex bridles used for that purpose on kingposted models. The first wave of topless hang gliders appeared at the pre-world championships in Australia in 1996 (the worlds are held every two years, with pre-worlds held at the site of the next worlds on off years). The gathered pilots from around the world were all examining and talking about the innovations on their wings, and somehow the term "sprog" came to be the term of choice for the internal struts. Through reportage about the competition the application of the term quickly spread and has stuck. The term "sprog" was later said to be Aussie slang for sperm, though a little research only shows it as referring to offspring (affectionately) or, in the military, to recruits or any neophyte.

A hang glider sail (wing) is flexible by design, with the trailing edge able to move somewhat relative to the leading edge. To help ensure that a glider will recover from a very steep dive without pilot input, some means of supporting the trailing edge at very low angles of attack is needed, traditionally accomplished with reflex bridles - cables running from the top of the kingpost (a few feet above the wing) to the trailing edge of the sail. Topless gliders, developed in the mid-1990s, did away with the kingpost and upper rigging to eliminate a major source of performance-robbing parasitic drag.

Without the kingpost, there was nothing upon which to hang reflex bridles, so some other means of trailing edge support was needed. The most obvious solution was a strut inside the sail, anchored at the back of the leading edge frame tube and braced with a cable running from the top of the trailing edge tube to some point in the middle of the strut. Reflex bridles typically run to 3 or 4 points on the back of each wing, at the rear of the mid-span battens; one topless glider had 4 of the internal struts per wing (all light but expensive carbon composite constructions). Most models used one or two struts per side, each of which supported a spanwise rod near the trailing edge (transverse batten) which supported two or three battens.

The design problems were that the strut needed to be light, pivot or detach to allow the glider to fold normally, and support a couple of hundred pounds - the last entailing a couple of thousand pounds of tension on the bracing cable and hardware, plus a corresponding compression load on the front pivot point. A bracket with a universal joint was fairly straight-forward exercise, and wieght was addressed with carbon composite reinforced aluminium tubes at first (later larger diameter aluminum tubes without carbon were used). The bracing cables required more exotic fittings than usual but were otherwise unremarkable. The transverse battens also had to be stiff and light, so composites were used again, both carbon-balsa sandwich structures and simple carbon tubes.

These internal struts weigh much more and cost more to make than a kingpost and reflex bridles, but the benefit of drag reduction is significant. It is important that the sprogs not raise the trailing edge during normal flight, so there is a means of adjusting the height of each sprog. Lowering the sprogs reduces drag and pitch forces at high speed, but also reduces pitch stability, which is dangerous. Many of the competition pilots fly with their sprogs lowered to the point that their gliders would not pass certification standards, though very very few have tumbled or gone into unrecoverable dives.

A few gliders later included compensator systems, with the sprogs linked to the vg systems, so that the sprogs were higher at lower VG settings, and thus theoretically more effective, but the value of these systems is a debated question.

(person) by anyend (4 wk) (print) ? (I like it!) Thu Apr 24 2003 at 21:36:41

Sprog is a British aspersion for a child, akin to the American term "runt", "ankle biter" or "rug rat". Sprog in all likelihood comes from the term "sprag" which refers to a young salmon. In the 18th century, sprag came to refer to a gay, cheery youth.

By World War II, "sprog" had entered into the British army's slang lexicon and was used in a derogatory sense to refer to a new recruit or someone in the lower ranks. After the war, former soldiers started making lots and lots and lots of babies and sprog, being too good a word to forget, got applied to children.

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chaos

"Breeders" is a butt-ugly word	Sprag	Populous	Enter the Matrix
Ilkley Moor Baht 'At	hang glider	washout strut	Aspersion
ankle biter	sproag	design	Strut
March 7, 2005	Creative Commons	Irish Traveller	salmon
Runt	derogatory	Lexicon	childfree
I get to go to heaven!	Hackle	Sprig	Cthulhu

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