NASA AD-1 Oblique Wing

[Flightspeed]

Well, what an interesting way of achieving that!🤣

 

[L Edge]

What angle did you max out on?
Your one of the few that understands and uses the differential aileron in the radio.

 

[L Edge]

With the wing swept, are you going to try a right turn?

 

[Pieliker96]

What angle did you max out on?
Your one of the few that understands and uses the differential aileron in the radio.

The real one went to 60, I'm running into the mechanical limits of the wing pivot at 65 degrees - I wanted maximum deflection for storage but that also had to be my max in-flight sweep angle due to mixing / switch restrictions.

With the wing swept, are you going to try a right turn?

I will eventually yeah - I've just been flying left-hand patterns due to the wind direction at that airfield on that day. Max wing sweep is still a little squirrely - I don't trust it in turns. This is probably due to the drastically decreased roll inertia with the wing swept and the visual confusion about which of the blades of the scissors you're flying.

 

[Stress Test]

What’s swinging the wing like that suppose to achieve?

NEW UFO SIGHTINGS! lol, I mean look at the pic he uses for his desktop, it screams UFO!

 

[cyclone3350]

OMG! I am impressed. A: it flew extremely well in a conventional configuration and B: U got it to fly in the oblique configuration. Well done . For part B: I give U .X10-10th.Three point two likes times ten to the tenth power award.

 

[L Edge]

The real one went to 60, I'm running into the mechanical limits of the wing pivot at 65 degrees - I wanted maximum deflection for storage but that also had to be my max in-flight sweep angle due to mixing / switch restrictions.


I will eventually yeah - I've just been flying left-hand patterns due to the wind direction at that airfield on that day. Max wing sweep is still a little squirrely - I don't trust it in turns. This is probably due to the drastically decreased roll inertia with the wing swept and the visual confusion about which of the blades of the scissors you're flying.

Have you given any thoughts to a SR-71?

 

[Stress Test]

Have you given any thoughts to a SR-71?

That's a whole new level of insanity. Made to fly mostly straight and fast it would be a bugger to keep near the field.

Go for it!

 

[L Edge]

That's a whole new level of insanity. Made to fly mostly straight and fast it would be a bugger to keep near the field.

Go for it!

Actually no, I built a flat plate 2 64 mmEDF one and it flies great. Even handlaunches.

 

[Pieliker96]

Finally got some on-board video with the wings swung, think it's a unique perspective

 

[Tench745]

What a bizarre thing to watch. I love it.

 

[TheVinci]

Is it possible to send a signal to the wing by calculating the speed to change the angle of the wing relative to the speed of the uav?

 

[FoamyDM]

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/history/pastprojects/AD1/index.html

similar to other variable sweep planes - straight out for lift at low speeds, less drag a higher speeds.

The Guest of the Aviation RC Noob Podcast Ep100 Al Bowers Worked on the AD-1
Here more about it in ARCN Ep100, Part 3

 

[Patriot Rc]

https://imgur.com/8WC3L7g

The NASA Ames-Dryden 1 is a fairly wack exercise in variable geometry. The real thing was limited to relatively low speeds due to aeroelastic concerns, in addition to the fact that it had been built on a shoestring budget of $240K. I've built the wing and associated actuator rather stout to counter the aeroelasticity - though, in the spirit of the real thing, most of what I'll be building it with is already available to me - I'll only be buying the EDFs and ESCs new.

Here's some pictures of the build process:

View attachment 188394
Wing going together. Note the main spar (0.25" x 0.75" birch ply) and mounting plate.

View attachment 188396
Here's the actuator, it's the same I used in the B1-B project - the Actuonix L12-R in the 100mm stroke variety. Actuation speed is rather low but isn't critical in this application.

View attachment 188395 View attachment 188397
Some pics of the glue-up of and of the completed wing pivot mechanism. It's constructed of 1/8" plywood and rides on a 1/4" diameter zinc-plated jesus bolt with a nylock nut. Total actuation range is 0 - 65° - the real thing did 0-60°, I wanted a little extra to make storage easier. It was built to the highest engineering standards of "looks strong enough, she'll be aight".

View attachment 188398 View attachment 188399
Tail assembly, empennage, and main gear. I used ES09MDs for all control surfaces along with a 10A BEC for flight control. The main gear slots into the fuselage in the traditional FT style, the fuselage is almost entirely monocoque with a good bit of paper removed to save weight.

View attachment 188400 View attachment 188401
Installed wing actuator and completed fuselage. The space behind the cockpit will serve as the battery hatch, the tray for which I have yet to make. The nose wheel is steerable and tied to the rudder channel by means of a 5g micro servo with a slot in its control arm.

View attachment 188403 View attachment 188404
Aircraft sans motor pods, EDFs, and ESCs. Wingspan (unswept) is 67". With a projected all-up weight of 1400g, Cube loading is around 9. I'm planning on using twin 50mm EDFs on 4S, which will be installed a few months from now (college being what it is). That'll give it a thrust-to-weight of around 0.8, as opposed to the real thing's abysmal TWR of 0.21 - it's easier to get away with low TWRs with highly efficient wings and miles of runway, a luxury scarce in the hobby world.

One of the interesting consequences of the oblique wing is a coupling between roll and pitch control: Applying roll deflects the ailerons in opposite directions, which, since one is aft of and one is fore of the CG, pitches the craft up or down. I've added a couple of mixes to counter this effect. In the real thing, pilots reported the coupling was manageable under 45° but became more of a nuisance as sweep approached 60°, during which the aeroelastic effects became more pronounced. There is a significant, higher-than-usual chance of this thing breaking up in-flight due to aeroelasticity and/or flutter of sorts. The easiest way to find out is to just go and fly it!

Maiden Flight NET May 2021.

That is an interesting plane!