Death trap id rather walk lol

Oh my

I just spewed Diet Coke all over my monitor. 

 

OK, let's simplify the problem as much as possible.  If you gave the guy a Cessna 150 or Piper Cub, would he be able to take off from that particular unimproved surface, fly a pattern of some sort, and land on the same surface?  If there's any crosswind? 

 

We already know materials strength is not this guy's strong suit.  What are chances of the wings remaining on the plane?

 

I hate to be a downer, but I have a little experience in this area.  My best-and-oldest friend once designed an ultralight, and wanted to use my garage to build it.  I refused, as I used my garage already and suggested he rent a storage space for the three months he claimed he would need.  He never did.

 

This probably saved his life.  He was a bit... eccentric... and his design was a Frankenstein's monster.  It was specifically designed to be unstable.  And twin engines, on an ultralight.  This machine would have cheerfully killed him, probably on his first high speed taxi test (He knew about these, he was well-read and had about 12 hours in a Cub).  Had he gotten it into the air, it would have been interesting to try to control.  With a canard wing, it would have been too easy to get into an unrecoverable stall... and a tailslide.  His knowledge of materials strength wasn't any better than the guy in the video, and his method of mounting the fiberglass covered styrofoam wings actually frightened me at the time.  If a wing mounting had given way, the propellers on each side next to the pilot had a good chance of passing through the cockpit... and the pilot.  "It's stressed for 12 G's positive and 9 G's negative."  Somehow, I doubt that.

 

This guy wasn't stupid;  he's one of the smarter people I know.  But he liked to do things differently.  I didn't think too much about it at the time, but since then I've learned a lot about flying and I can see a lot of problems with his design. 

 

He's still around, thank goodness, but no longer flying or designing ultralights.

 

Hook

 

 

Ummmm - Not to diminish the spotlight on your 'experience'....but I think you will find I was tongue in cheek referring to the 'designers' comments at the end of the video :huh:

 

Us Kiwis have a fairly dry sense of humor at times....

Ah.  I didn't recognize that from the video.  Gotcha!

 

Edit:  I just watched the video again.  That's a freakin' one lane dirt road with ruts!  His gear collapsed on the berm of the road. 

 

I take back what I said earlier.  He's never seen FS9 either, or he'd know that there's no way he could use that as a runway.

 

<facepalm>

 

Hook

amateurs...

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8377/8510001136_94863a7921_k.jpg

"The sophisticated engines of modern aeroplanes are diligently fine-tuned in order to carry those contemporary planes exactly to their crash sites."

 

(Except for this aircraft never leaving the ground ...)

I taught myself how to fly R/C on an Airtronics QT with a parasol wing when I was 12. It was a light weight rudder elevator only powered by a Black Widow .049. When I mastered that I did not have enough money for another kit. I bought a semi symmetrical foam wing, shoulder mounted it, covered it with Mylar, did away with the rudder and installed aileron's. Installed a .049 Tee Dee with a internal tank. Took my proud new creation to the field on a cool day, fired it up, hand launched her and she went a graceful six feet and landed. Thus proving lift must overcome weight. LOL.

The Chinese seem to have more success with home-built aircraft -unfortunately

 

 

Needs to have a copy of x-plane

A lot safer than giving an American or Australian male a hotted up sports V8. So many of our young have died through stupidity of thinking they can drive a 2 tonne machine at very high speeds.

Interesting video, I am not even sure it is a prototype but the wheels.....and the runway...... ouch.

The wing looks good. But how to get it flying with those faulty wheels....or is it just the aircraft is too heavy?

Or is this just a joke?

 

Looks like they need a bit of hard cash and a few more engineers.

 

You know this might not be a joke one day with the high costs we have in the West. It could be these developing nations that live on $2 a day per person build aircraft for a tenth of the price of Cessna and Piper.

 

Absolutely good on them for trying! If you don't fail you won't succeed!!

From the apparent weight when they were lifting it up, looks like it could be made of steel panels filled with concrete!

From the apparent weight when they were lifting it up, looks like it could be made of steel panels filled with concrete!

 

Just the light weight parts. Everything else was cast iron with a lead laminate. Did anyone notice that what they seemed to be pouring into the tank looked like water? Maybe for the cold fusion reactor? I suppose it may have actually been water going into a tank for ballast or simply for the pilots consumption during the long flight.

 

As a side note, I know of at least one real world pilot with a real airplane, a Cub, who didn't fair much better. The man was a good pilot. Gave me a lot of joy rides in his Cessna 140 when I was a kid. He restored a Piper Cub over a couple of years. When it was finished he wheeled it out to a pasture behind his garage to fly it to the local county airport. He only missed one important detail - the drainage ditch over grown with grass that ran across his intended taxi path to line up into the wind. There the Cub stood gracefully balanced on its nose, and seriously deformed in a few spots. He was rightfully angry with himself and I was seriously disappointed that I wasn't going to get a ride in it.

 

I wish the people in the video better luck and a better plan, from the ground up :Big Grin: if they go at it again. Look out Gulfstream there is competition on your six!

 

Mel

... I think the term 'gobsmacked' comes close.

These guys are having a great time for sure. Reminds me about the film ColRunners with Johh Candy

 

 

Needs to have a copy of x-plane

 

He's already got one.  How else would he know the aerodynamics were sound?  It's not like you can learn that stuff from FS9. 

 

I was surprised at how heavy the guys made the tail boom look.

 

Hm, the liquid going into the tank, using a soda bottle as a funnel.  I wonder if that was fuel grade alcohol.  If so, that stuff may not have enough energy.  For the plane, at any rate.

 

Hook