Comment by Brad Powers on August 2, 2009 at 10:08pm

Wow. That's super cool.

Moderator Comment by Chris Anderson on August 2, 2009 at 10:09pm

What the heck are going on with those wingtips?

Comment by Earl on August 2, 2009 at 10:21pm

Looks like it will make a good UAV. I use wings and am starting to like them.
Earl

Comment by Ryan on August 2, 2009 at 10:30pm

I like flying wing for the low drag, etc but I hate flying wing because of the small CG margin...sucks for payload integration.

Moderator Comment by Chris Anderson on August 2, 2009 at 10:34pm

I agree with stikmunkey. CG is a b**ch with flying wings. If you don't design the whole thing around your payload, you're going to be struggling to move things around and shave grams forevermore. Flying wings are good for custom-designed packages, but they're a poor general purpose UAV plaftorm.

Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on August 3, 2009 at 1:21am

Looks like it will fly fast with any load in it, I wonder if that's why it has flap sections.

Comment by ernani reis on August 3, 2009 at 5:36am

If you plan do something like that, beware of the lift from the body, when the wing stalls, the body will probably be still generating lift ahead from the CG, resulting in a sudden, uncontrollable, pitch up. There are reports of a bad UAV that crashed that way.

the arrangement is very efficient

There is a kit, similar to the one in the picture, copied (in scale) from a Brazilian navy UAV, for sale, they call it "filming wing":
http://knw.com.br/Loja/product_info.php/cPath/36/products_id/106

Comment by Mike Bakula on August 3, 2009 at 8:05am

The tips look like they're intended to be used as rudders, similar to the Rutan Vari-Eze. To yaw, you move only the rudder on the inside wing -- lift and drag due to lift provide yaw. It also provides the option to deploy both rudders to get some extra drag on approach. The flaps being split inboard/outboard are also a nice feature, as the inboard ones may be far enough forward to provide nose-down trim -- it depends on if there's enough sweep to move the CP far enough back. Otherwise, there's going to be trim changes with elevon deflection.

I'd be concerned about pitch-up as ernani reis mentions, as well as a lot of lost thrust due to flow separation over that big fuselage.

As Chris says -- integration is difficult with flying wings, unless the whole package is designed together.

Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on August 3, 2009 at 10:05am

I think the wing tips have been bent when they hung it up!

Comment by Gian Carlo M. on August 3, 2009 at 10:54am

As Mike said, I believe the tips are rudders. They are "tipping" to the side like that because the connection is loose. A beautiful airplane. Looks like a manta ray.

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