Comment by Chris McNair on August 30, 2010 at 12:25pm

Wonder if they cover the BIG holes for water takeoff and landing..... =)

Comment by Ryan on August 30, 2010 at 8:29pm

That's the ugliest thing I've seen...I'd be offended to be rescued by something that ugly :)

Comment by Alex on September 1, 2010 at 3:20am

So whats to fancy about shape changing trailing edge flaps over normal actuated flaps/ ailerons? And why is that sooo much better in bad weather than just having high responce control survaces with good servos and Autopilot?

Comment by Adrian Eves on September 1, 2010 at 4:45am

A five meter swell will change its shape for sure

Comment by Krzysztof Bosak on September 1, 2010 at 5:52am

@@@Alex "And why is that sooo much better in bad weather than just having high responce control survaces with good servos and Autopilot? "
Because there are no servos?
Because of response bandwidth?
Because this is research project and they HAD to try something different?

Comment by Curt Olson on September 1, 2010 at 5:56am

A 2 meter swell and 25 kt winds could easily flip a small airplane like this. Just imagine a wave pitching you up to +45 degrees, and then dropping away out from under you, leaving you exposed to the wind. (I've seen this happen with a flying wing that was floating on the water surface with nothing above the water to catch the wind, until just the right wave left the airplane exposed ...) The good news is that you'll probably be right side up a few moments later, but upside down again ... and repeat ... at least until the wings break off. The ocean is incredibly powerful and incredibly brutal.

One nice thing about the ocean though, if you stay in the air, is that the wind is generally much more consistent than over land. You don't have the earth heating up and generating thermals, you don't have terrain and vegetation generating turbulent flow ... the wind out there is much more of a consistent vector. Usually anyway ... I've been in 35kt winds in the open ocean, but never a big raging storm.

This is totally off topic, but imagine a small workout room at the bow of the ship ... the portion of the ship that moves up and down the most when traveling through the waves. Now imagine trying to run on a tread mill ... for two and a half steps you are totally weightless, and then for two and a half steps you weigh 500 lbs ... and then entire room is enclosed with no windows so there's no horizon reference to help you out. Now do that for a few weeks and get really skilled at it. Now come in to port and try to walk straight on dry land. :-)

Comment by Mathew krawczun on September 1, 2010 at 9:29am

@alex

The reason this is better is simply because the wind does not affect the whole wing equally. Adaptive flaps takes stress off the wing keeping it from bending and giving it more lift and so making it more efficient (and quiit if you apply the idea to the blades). Now these rubber flaps naturally adapt while if you did this with a computer would take countless more servos connected to as many small flaps and the same amount of sensors connected to a very fast and powerful computer to be able to keep up with the constantly changing wind.

So if you look at it from this way you can see why this is better.

Now there are still normal flaps that steer the plane but these just make the plane fly better in ruff wind.

Comment by Curt Olson on September 1, 2010 at 9:35am

So this turbulence adaption is a purely mechanical system? Does the turbulence itself actuate these rubber flaps? Are there any pictures or diagrams of how this works? I'm having trouble visualizing how this might work, but it sounds pretty cool.

If it doesn't fight against (or excite instability in) your primary autopilot it could be really neat.

Comment by Rana on September 1, 2010 at 10:21am

Really great plane ! what is the price of the airframe alone ?

Comment by Alex on September 1, 2010 at 11:13am

Thanks for the answers, So the trailing edge flaps are not computer controlled and just adapt naturally? If that is the case then I can see why it would be better if its reliable, I was thinking that it was using some smart memory alloys or something along those lines. But yeah I kinda understand how it could be better
I have done some work about a year ago on adaptive wingtip devices and they can greatly reduce the wing loads in wind gusting as well as its main use to reduce induced drag, but the ones I worked with were all computer controlled multi surface. And probably alot more effort that a cleverly designed rubber strip :P

Comment

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page