Hi,
A bit about myself: I have flown multirotors for a little over a year, but my science background extends back decades, for most of which I worked in the private sector (largely in software engineering and applied math). I do have an interest, and a degree, in education, which makes this site of particular interest. I want to learn about fixed wing aircraft, and ultimately want to get into VTOL aircraft.
Let me begin by asking three questions.
My first question involves my seeking advice on the science of flight, and the impact, if any, of scaling. To what extent do the physics of aircraft scale, or perhaps change as a result of scale. I ask because I have a number of physical handicaps that make it difficult for me to get outside into an area large enough to permit use of say park fliers. In other words, are there good, scientific reasons that a functional, fixed wing aircraft can not be made that is the size of a Blade Inductrix, as can be bought from Hobby Horizon, and thus be flown indoors (like the paper airplanes I made many, MANY decades ago as a youth)? I repeat, my background is in the hard sciences, including plenty of math (i.e. mostly math and life sciences), although I have only begun to look at flight recently, so feel free to point me to good, relevant science and engineering references as I am sure I can 'eventually' understand them.
My second question is for my own personal education. I have been taking a look at the V-22 Osprey, and the superficially similar Canadian aircraft, CL-84 Dynavert; aircraft I find fascinating. Yes, I know the V-22 is a tilt rotor and the CL-84 is a tilt wing, but the similarities seem striking when comparing either with more conventional aircraft. Something I'd like to try is to make models of these that have all the capabilities of the real things, but small enough to fly in a school gymnasium, if not small enough to fly in a typical living room (in Canada, we have a much shorter period of time during which one can fly models in reasonable comfort). I know FT doesn't have a model design for this, but, since all my R/C model experience is with multirotors (I have a design for a rather novel, 300 mm octocopter, that I hope to get made this year - what makes this especially interesting is that it ought to be able to fly at speed beneath the canopy of a Canadian forest - something that has potential in environmental research as well as search and rescue, well, searching anyway), I thought I'd begin this study with a small fixed wing aircraft. My proximate objective is just to learn to make and fly fixed wing aircraft, as well as examine the impact of design choices on how a fixed wing aircraft flies. To this end, do you think some of the FT models can be scaled down to the size of a 200 mm quad and still fly well indoors? I thought I'd start with the "Alpha Bravo Charlie - Combo", and hopefully scale them down to something I can fly indoors. My ultimate objective is to be able to make/fly a variety of VTOL aircraft and study the ways in which they differ. Since you're the pros in this, can I trouble you for advice on making interesting models of this size from the model designs you presently have on FT, and for any information you can find that would be useful for me to design and make a fully functional scale model of the V-22 Osprey and also the Canadair CL-84 of a comparable size. I expect this will be a long term project and will have to fit it into time after work and on my few days off (well, at least until I am fully pensioned off). If/when I can figure out how to make/fly a scale model of the Osprey and Dynavert, I'd like to try to make/fly scale models of other VTOL aircraft such as some variant of the Harrier and perhaps the Yakovlev Yak-38.
My last question, for now, is what advice would you give to someone who ultimately wants all kids to have a chance to fly and compete within their schools, between schools within their region, and with others initially in the same province (I am Canadian) or state, nationally, and ultimately internationally? For competition, I am thinking not just racing, but also acrobatics and aerial photography. And I am thinking of the objective of encouraging kids to have fun thinking hard about objective reality, especially in the form of doing science and engineering. And ultimately, as blasphemous as it may seem on a site devoted to flight, I'd personally extend this to ground vehicles and boats, and their utility in combat (great fodder for cadets in all branches of military service I should think). The only obvious thing I see here is that such a vision can only be acheived gradually, in parts and over time. So, racing, acrobatics and aerial photography competitions can be built beginning on a local or regional basis, but things like military games would have to wat on development of a variety of new technologies (e.g. effective R/C control of submarines, or scale appropriate, and SAFE, weapon systems for use in simulated combat). Perhaps any out there who are working in educational systems can advise on how to elicit participation of as many schools, and their students, as possible, while those with experience in various kinds of competition can advise on the design and implementation of healthy competitions for kids of different ages.
Regards
Ted
A bit about myself: I have flown multirotors for a little over a year, but my science background extends back decades, for most of which I worked in the private sector (largely in software engineering and applied math). I do have an interest, and a degree, in education, which makes this site of particular interest. I want to learn about fixed wing aircraft, and ultimately want to get into VTOL aircraft.
Let me begin by asking three questions.
My first question involves my seeking advice on the science of flight, and the impact, if any, of scaling. To what extent do the physics of aircraft scale, or perhaps change as a result of scale. I ask because I have a number of physical handicaps that make it difficult for me to get outside into an area large enough to permit use of say park fliers. In other words, are there good, scientific reasons that a functional, fixed wing aircraft can not be made that is the size of a Blade Inductrix, as can be bought from Hobby Horizon, and thus be flown indoors (like the paper airplanes I made many, MANY decades ago as a youth)? I repeat, my background is in the hard sciences, including plenty of math (i.e. mostly math and life sciences), although I have only begun to look at flight recently, so feel free to point me to good, relevant science and engineering references as I am sure I can 'eventually' understand them.
My second question is for my own personal education. I have been taking a look at the V-22 Osprey, and the superficially similar Canadian aircraft, CL-84 Dynavert; aircraft I find fascinating. Yes, I know the V-22 is a tilt rotor and the CL-84 is a tilt wing, but the similarities seem striking when comparing either with more conventional aircraft. Something I'd like to try is to make models of these that have all the capabilities of the real things, but small enough to fly in a school gymnasium, if not small enough to fly in a typical living room (in Canada, we have a much shorter period of time during which one can fly models in reasonable comfort). I know FT doesn't have a model design for this, but, since all my R/C model experience is with multirotors (I have a design for a rather novel, 300 mm octocopter, that I hope to get made this year - what makes this especially interesting is that it ought to be able to fly at speed beneath the canopy of a Canadian forest - something that has potential in environmental research as well as search and rescue, well, searching anyway), I thought I'd begin this study with a small fixed wing aircraft. My proximate objective is just to learn to make and fly fixed wing aircraft, as well as examine the impact of design choices on how a fixed wing aircraft flies. To this end, do you think some of the FT models can be scaled down to the size of a 200 mm quad and still fly well indoors? I thought I'd start with the "Alpha Bravo Charlie - Combo", and hopefully scale them down to something I can fly indoors. My ultimate objective is to be able to make/fly a variety of VTOL aircraft and study the ways in which they differ. Since you're the pros in this, can I trouble you for advice on making interesting models of this size from the model designs you presently have on FT, and for any information you can find that would be useful for me to design and make a fully functional scale model of the V-22 Osprey and also the Canadair CL-84 of a comparable size. I expect this will be a long term project and will have to fit it into time after work and on my few days off (well, at least until I am fully pensioned off). If/when I can figure out how to make/fly a scale model of the Osprey and Dynavert, I'd like to try to make/fly scale models of other VTOL aircraft such as some variant of the Harrier and perhaps the Yakovlev Yak-38.
My last question, for now, is what advice would you give to someone who ultimately wants all kids to have a chance to fly and compete within their schools, between schools within their region, and with others initially in the same province (I am Canadian) or state, nationally, and ultimately internationally? For competition, I am thinking not just racing, but also acrobatics and aerial photography. And I am thinking of the objective of encouraging kids to have fun thinking hard about objective reality, especially in the form of doing science and engineering. And ultimately, as blasphemous as it may seem on a site devoted to flight, I'd personally extend this to ground vehicles and boats, and their utility in combat (great fodder for cadets in all branches of military service I should think). The only obvious thing I see here is that such a vision can only be acheived gradually, in parts and over time. So, racing, acrobatics and aerial photography competitions can be built beginning on a local or regional basis, but things like military games would have to wat on development of a variety of new technologies (e.g. effective R/C control of submarines, or scale appropriate, and SAFE, weapon systems for use in simulated combat). Perhaps any out there who are working in educational systems can advise on how to elicit participation of as many schools, and their students, as possible, while those with experience in various kinds of competition can advise on the design and implementation of healthy competitions for kids of different ages.
Regards
Ted
