Ran D. St. Clair
Member
Go Big at Flite Fest
People love to build, fly, and watch really big planes fly at Flite Fest, but they can be difficult to transport, especially for people coming from far away. Fortunately, Flite Fest has a tradition of build tents which makes it possible to build them on site.
The challenge is to provide some reference designs. That way people can bring their radio gear, motors, batteries, etc, and build them with locally sourced materials.
They should be simple, cheap, disposable, known to fly well, and BIG. The primary building materials would be Styrofoam insulation from the local home improvement store, and foamboard. The simplest designs should take just a few hours build. Reference designs would include a list of parts so builders can easily bring what they need from home and buy the rest when they arrive. In many cases they would be built by teams, so the cost would be minimal.
These are “single use” aircraft, since the airframe is usually discarded at the end of the event. It is not overly expensive. A 4’x8’x1” sheet of Polystyrene is only about $11.00. It comes in different thicknesses ranging from 0.75” to 4”. Most aircraft can be built with just 1 or 2 sheets. So long as the FF organizers plan for the waste disposal it should not be a problem.
In general, these would not be heavy or fast aircraft, but large and very light weight. This helps to mitigate any safety concerns, but it also means that they might not handle a lot of wind.
They could often use existing FT Power Pack options like the Power Pack D (Standard Quadcopter). In some cases a single large motor is preferable and FT might create a special purpose power pack to be sold at FF. If some of the designs became popular at “home” then a larger power pack option might become a standard part of the FT store.
These would make excellent night flyers, so the FT store could offer ready to install LED kits which would probably be popular with the smaller planes as well.
The possible aircraft designs are nearly infinite, but the documented reference designs should be fairly simple. The goal is to keep the build time to less than a day. Advanced modelers will no doubt take the concept to an impressive extreme, but the reference designs should be achievable by intermediate builders. The reference designs should also detail the items that can most easily be made at home and brought to the event. This would include things like power harnesses, plywood joiners and firewalls, or generally anything that might be difficult to make on site. The result would be a relatively small kit of tools and parts that would be brought to the event to insure a speedy and functional build.
Aircraft ideas.
1. Enlarged versions of classic FT designs like the FT Flyer, Nutball, and Delta
2. 3D Fun Flyer
3. Flying Plank* – Basically a 4’x8’ piece of foam with 2 motors and elevons.
4. Plus Wing VTOL* – A simple cruciform tail sitter VTOL that is also an airplane
5. Ring Wing VTOL* – A simple quad that is also an airplane
*Some of these designs such as the VTOL aircraft require a flight controller (FC). Others may benefit from a FC even if they are not VTOLs.
It’s too late for 2017 but we have an entire year to publish some designs for 2018.
Let me illustrate the point with a couple of examples:
The VTOL Ring Wing
The Flying Barn Door
People love to build, fly, and watch really big planes fly at Flite Fest, but they can be difficult to transport, especially for people coming from far away. Fortunately, Flite Fest has a tradition of build tents which makes it possible to build them on site.
The challenge is to provide some reference designs. That way people can bring their radio gear, motors, batteries, etc, and build them with locally sourced materials.
They should be simple, cheap, disposable, known to fly well, and BIG. The primary building materials would be Styrofoam insulation from the local home improvement store, and foamboard. The simplest designs should take just a few hours build. Reference designs would include a list of parts so builders can easily bring what they need from home and buy the rest when they arrive. In many cases they would be built by teams, so the cost would be minimal.
These are “single use” aircraft, since the airframe is usually discarded at the end of the event. It is not overly expensive. A 4’x8’x1” sheet of Polystyrene is only about $11.00. It comes in different thicknesses ranging from 0.75” to 4”. Most aircraft can be built with just 1 or 2 sheets. So long as the FF organizers plan for the waste disposal it should not be a problem.
In general, these would not be heavy or fast aircraft, but large and very light weight. This helps to mitigate any safety concerns, but it also means that they might not handle a lot of wind.
They could often use existing FT Power Pack options like the Power Pack D (Standard Quadcopter). In some cases a single large motor is preferable and FT might create a special purpose power pack to be sold at FF. If some of the designs became popular at “home” then a larger power pack option might become a standard part of the FT store.
These would make excellent night flyers, so the FT store could offer ready to install LED kits which would probably be popular with the smaller planes as well.
The possible aircraft designs are nearly infinite, but the documented reference designs should be fairly simple. The goal is to keep the build time to less than a day. Advanced modelers will no doubt take the concept to an impressive extreme, but the reference designs should be achievable by intermediate builders. The reference designs should also detail the items that can most easily be made at home and brought to the event. This would include things like power harnesses, plywood joiners and firewalls, or generally anything that might be difficult to make on site. The result would be a relatively small kit of tools and parts that would be brought to the event to insure a speedy and functional build.
Aircraft ideas.
1. Enlarged versions of classic FT designs like the FT Flyer, Nutball, and Delta
2. 3D Fun Flyer
3. Flying Plank* – Basically a 4’x8’ piece of foam with 2 motors and elevons.
4. Plus Wing VTOL* – A simple cruciform tail sitter VTOL that is also an airplane
5. Ring Wing VTOL* – A simple quad that is also an airplane
*Some of these designs such as the VTOL aircraft require a flight controller (FC). Others may benefit from a FC even if they are not VTOLs.
It’s too late for 2017 but we have an entire year to publish some designs for 2018.
Let me illustrate the point with a couple of examples:
The VTOL Ring Wing
The Flying Barn Door
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