The Blériot XI released!

[Fielder 3,673]

There are 3 engines in the wing42 Bleriot XI fleet. Only the largest engine version flies significantly different than the Wright Bros. first planes. This is a correct historically.

But on all of them, if you let go the stick the plane will dive, you have to keep constant pressure on it and there is no 'elevator trim'.

It's a fun plane historically. I think about 3000 of the most powerful Rhone versions were made and it was in production for about 10 years.

Start of wwI planes could not do a speeds as high as 100 knotts. Not even the 'scouts' (fighter planes). The first ACE, Boelke's fabulous plane the E1 'eindecker' used wing warping instead of ailerons, had only 1 wing, but it shot through the propeller enabling complete air domination by the Germans for a period.

 

[Fielder 3,673]

Bleriot XI was very successful, from 1909 to 1918, thousands sold around the world, and was the first plane to control maneuvers using a 'stick'. The early version could fly, you could say that. The later versions which were the ones put into production were practical in the modern sense and the Wing42 fleet mirrors this reality. The 2 early versions are sort of curiosities.

[Fielder 3,673]

The Sopwith Camel used it's torque from it's rotary engine for fabulous turn ability in one direction, using torque as an asset. It was just the opposite when turning the other direction. Was hard to handle and would spin stall easily. It took the Germans by surprise and was one of reasons the Allies seized back air superiority.

[Treetops45 1,082]

I purchased it & have flown it, & like it a lot.

Just have to figure out a slew control to get it lined up for take off. 😃

A slow but dignified parting of company with mother earth.

Couple of shots from an unlikely departue location, Milford Sound, New Zealand.

T45

 

 

 

Edited November 21, 2020 by Treetops45

[Fielder 3,673]

Here's some of my shots. In the outside view, the altitude hasn't risen or fallen 20 feet for the last 3 minutes, this is the normal attitude.

Because elevator trim does not work , I cheat and move the 'payload' slider back and forth in the 'fuel' section of the msfs overhead menu. It trims it right out to level flight 😁 and then fine adjustments are done with the throttle. Which being an air intake adjustment instead of a corroborator butterfly valve, makes small vertical speed differences, maybe vsi -4 at min throttle and +6 at full throttle.

 

 

In the front view, you can't see the engine/cylinders because it's bolted to the prop and the whole thing is spinning!

 

Cockpit view a bit restricted, LOL, you can see to the sides OK.

 

The sound is wonderful, one of the best sound files ever in my opinion.

Too much fun!

 

 

 

[leprechaunlive 1,852]

5 hours ago, Fielder said:

Here's some of my shots. In the outside view, the altitude hasn't risen or fallen 20 feet for the last 3 minutes, this is the normal attitude.

Because elevator trim does not work , I cheat and move the 'payload' slider back and forth in the 'fuel' section of the msfs overhead menu. It trims it right out to level flight 😁 and then fine adjustments are done with the throttle. Which being an air intake adjustment instead of a corroborator butterfly valve, makes small vertical speed differences, maybe vsi -4 at min throttle and +6 at full throttle.

 

 

In the front view, you can't see the engine/cylinders because it's bolted to the prop and the whole thing is spinning!

 

Cockpit view a bit restricted, LOL, you can see to the sides OK.

 

The sound is wonderful, one of the best sound files ever in my opinion.

Too much fun!

 

 

 

You mean the whole engine is spinning with the prop? what the fudge 😄

 

And the texture work here is AMAZING.

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,798]

23 minutes ago, leprechaunlive said:

 

You mean the whole engine is spinning with the prop? what the fudge 😄

 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2020 by Glenn Fitzpatrick

[YoYo 374]

4 hours ago, leprechaunlive said:

You mean the whole engine is spinning with the prop? what the fudge 

 

 

It looks like you've never dealt with WWI period planes and from before .... if not (and you don't check it before you don't know) then better not to speak because it's kind of ignorance, I think. 

Edited November 22, 2020 by YoYo

[leprechaunlive 1,852]

41 minutes ago, YoYo said:

I looks like you've never dealt with WWI period planes and from before .... if not (and you don't check it before you don't know) then better not to speak because it's kind of ignorance, I think. 

Sorry but i have no idea what you'r trying to say here. 

[The Flight Level 2,113]

Great shots and PR for the aircraft. Brings back memories when I did a scratch build of the dummy engine for my Proctor Antic. Converted from gas to electric. You can see the scratch build thread here. Flip to the last pages of the thread to see the final build.

https://www.rcscalebuilder.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=21120&PN=0&TPN=1

PS Just realized you would have to register or log in to see the post.

Edited November 22, 2020 by Doering
Log in required at RCScaleBuilder

[Chock 17,769]

3 hours ago, leprechaunlive said:

You mean the whole engine is spinning with the prop? what the fudge 😄

Yup. Seems a bit bonkers to us these days, but it was actually a pretty sensible approach to a problem back then.

At the time rotary engines were first developed, we simply did not have the fancy alloys later engines utilised, so early engines had to have their cylinders milled from a solid block of quite heavy metal, with other less precise parts cast out of other very heavy metals.

As today, there were two choices; either air-cooled or water cooled. Without the additional weight of radiator systems, the choice of going for air cooling offered more power to weight, and the fact that the entire cylinder assembly was rotating at over 1,000 RPM whist the crankshaft was bolted to the airframe, meant that manufacturers could mill the cylinders and cooling fins of an air-cooled rotary to be much smaller and with thinner cylinder walls, without the risk of overheating the engine since with it spinning around, these were very efficiently cooled. This also meant that the oil system could be relatively simple as well, essentially using centrifugal force to move it around rather than a heavier pump system, although it did mean that rotaries had a lubrication system which lost a lot of oil as it operated and threw a lot of it into the face of the pilot and all over the airframe.

This is why in photos of WW1 flyers, they are often absolutely filthy with very un-military looking uniforms and it is also why in the very first military aviators had a rather unusual infrastructure, where the pilot was invariably an NCO and the observer/gunner was more often the officer. In the early war years, pilots were often regarded as somewhat grubby aerial chauffeurs, it was only when one of these - Max Immelman - started making a name for himself in his Fokker Eindecker with its forward-firing gun, that the more ambitious and frequently aristocratic observers such as Baron Manfred Von Richthofen wanted to get into the driving seat.

Of course such a system is not without its problems, not least of which is the massive gyroscopic force generated from having such a big lump of metal whirling around and creating a turning and pitching force, something which made most rotary-equipped aeroplanes turn much better in one direction than they would in the other. But it wasn't all bad news, with such a mechanism, it was of course difficult to install a carburettor to allow smooth throttle control; some rotaries did not even bother to address this at all; simply running flat out all the time and only really controllable via a 'blip switch' which could chop the electrical power to either some, or all of the cylinders in order to reduce power, the alternative being to completely cut the power for brief periods and then restart the engine as necessary.

This was made a less risky proposition by virtue of the fact that since the entire cylinder assembly was spinning with the propeller attached to it, this worked as a big flywheel, so the engine always had a good chance of restarting in flight, as it was effectively its own inertia starter. The bad side of this was that you did risk oiling the plugs when doing this kind of thing. Because of this, there was what might be regarded as a rudimentary throttle system on many rotaries, but in practice it was tricky to use during 'busy' times (such as when in combat in a WW1 fighter), since it was more of a choke system than a true throttle as we are familiar with. Such systems used a 'bloc-tube' which allowed you to adjust the fuel and air flow with a couple of levers, so it was more of a 'fine-tuning' control than a throttle and it had to be used with care in order not to choke the engine, so in practice it would often only be used when cruising, whereas the simpler electrical blip system would be the choice for more critical phases of flight such as slowing down behind an enemy in order to shoot at them, or when coming in for a landing. This is why most people say that all rotaries did not have carburettors, which isn't strictly true, but in practice it's not far off the truth.

You can hear that blip system in a lot of footage of WW1 aeroplanes when they come in for a landing, with their characteristic 'brrrp - silence - brrrp' intermittent sound as they approach for a touchdown, where they are basically turning the engine on and off.

Edited November 22, 2020 by Chock

[HighBypass 2,339]

Just found this gem. I found it fascinating anyway:

 

I wonder if any plastic model companies would care to make one as a kit with transparent cylinders and casings? That would be rather cool IMHO.

Morris Models do a cutaway flat sectional rotary however (2 valves per cylinder also)

https://morrismodels.com/product/7-cylinder-wwi-rotary-engine-kit/

[Fielder 3,673]

Hmmm, that pilot looks familiar....

 

 

[Waldo Pepper 1,952]

Hotfix dropped today

 

[loge 42]

This plane looks like a nice alternative to all the modern GA planes in the sim.  Does anyone know if it works well with the latest MSFS patch?  At least the AP bug won't be a problem here!