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WingHopper guide

How to design, analyse and build a hydrofoil wing with WingHopper: planform curves, size, twist, wingtips, sections, ride speeds, structure, cores, plies and molds.

Start here

• Getting started: The whole loop is: fork a wing, reshape it, check the numbers, export a file, build it. Ten minutes the first time. Here is each step.
• What am I building?: Pick the route first. It decides which files you export, and which of them end up inside the finished wing.

Design

• Design parameters: Every control in the Design group, what it means, and what it does to the wing. Each parameter page has an effects table: nudge the parameter up or down…
• Curves: The wing is drawn by curves, and every other control edits one of them.
• Size: The Size tab sets the wing's overall dimensions. Each slider edits the planform curves behind it, so the outline keeps its character as it resizes.
• Twist: Twist is each section's pitch angle along the half-span, often a touch positive at the root, washing out (negative) toward the tip.
• Wingtip: The Wingtip tab shapes the tip outline and the tip's height.
• Sections: Each station defines a foil section at a specific spanwise position. Sections blend smoothly between neighbours. Root and tip are anchors at 0% and 100%…

Analyse

• Fluid, weight and ride speeds: Analysis > Fluid answers the question every foiler asks first: at my weight, how fast does this wing have to go to hold me up, and is it the right size…
• Polar: Analysis > Polar is one lifting-line sweep of this exact wing (α −2° to 16°) at your all-up weight in the fluid you picked, plus a fixed section-drag…
• Structure: Analysis > Structure checks the actual wing (its assigned section thickness and planform) against the laminate from the Plies tab. Presets are free;…

Build

• Core: The wing offset inward by the skin laminate: the block you machine or cut, with the tip left solid where a core stops making sense. Exported as STEP.
• Plies: the laminate schedule: The Plies tab (Build group) defines the composite skin row by row: material, fibre orientation, and how many plies. One schedule describes one side; both…
• Mold tooling: A two-part female tool split at the leading-edge / trailing-edge parting line, flange out to the block walls. Two STEP files in one zip, in assembled…
• Construction guide: Three ways to build a hydrofoil wing from a WingHopper export: a direct printed wing, a retained core with composite skins, or a molded composite wing, and which files each one uses.

Assembly

• Full foil assembly: Open Assembly to start with Reference 1300. This is an original Winghopper reference design for editing and design studies. It is not a tested commercial…