SundayFlyboy97
Well-Known Member
Hi,
First to start off by saying that this will be the last of yet another of my "homebuilt design musings" threads, and I have started some.
So basically, you know that one time when you stumble upon an aircraft and it simlly clicks with you, that it is a perfect machine for you. Same thing happened when I encountered the Millenium glider. Unfortunately, as many know, they are impossible to find, let alone in Europe. Hence I put it in the back of my mind, but it keeps coming up every now and then telling me... this is "it".
Now, what is my motivation in all this? Well, firstly I would like to gather some thoughts and ideason how we could go about reviving such (or a very similar aircraft).
I personally come from the gliding world, but due to the logistics issues took up PG.
But my biggest wish was always to be able to blend the aerodynamic controls of a sailplane into a more compact solution, and also the one that would here, in my country, fit in the category of hang gliders, which means that one is able to take off and land outside the designated airfields, which in my case was a major nuisance with gliding as the airport is 130km away from where I live.
**
That means having an aircraft under 70kg that can be foot launched, then it is in the category of hang gliders.
**
Brightstar Millenium IMHO posseses 99% if not all of the qualities many of us seek.
- 3 axis controls
- portability (car roof portable)
- rigid wing
- deregulated category
- can be used outside of designated airfields
*foot launch (this is a requirement to be a deregulated aircraft in my country, that it is possible to launch on foot in sufficient winds)
- open air feeling just like PGs and HGs (idk about you but I always found closed cockpits too sterile, hence why I took up PG among other reasons)
For now the closest we have on a market are the SWIFT, and Archaeopteryx. Both are financially challenging to obtain, to put it modestly, with the swift being more reasonable. Also I dont like how the swift has less wing area compared to Millenium.
How could we go about building such an aircraft? The Millenium has composite D tubes formed in a vacuum under heat, so I dont think majority of us in amateur environment would find that feasible to build.
Would it be possible to build something similar out of aluminium, or a less demanding composite building process?
Unfortunately I am not an aeronautics engineer, just a 3 year engineering undergrad who also took extra physics classes, so I may not be able to go about this on my own. But the idea of this thread is also to let others piggyback with their own ideas, eith the common goal of perhaps having such an aircraft produced.
Another option I thought of was if we could take an ATOS wing and adapt it to use aerodynamic controls? And then just build a cage similar to the Millenium or SWIFT?
I know that interest for such an aircraft exists. I am not going to tag anyone but I know even on this forum I talked with some people who are working on similar "solutions" who would find this interesting, and a solution for what a lot of us want.
First to start off by saying that this will be the last of yet another of my "homebuilt design musings" threads, and I have started some.
So basically, you know that one time when you stumble upon an aircraft and it simlly clicks with you, that it is a perfect machine for you. Same thing happened when I encountered the Millenium glider. Unfortunately, as many know, they are impossible to find, let alone in Europe. Hence I put it in the back of my mind, but it keeps coming up every now and then telling me... this is "it".
Now, what is my motivation in all this? Well, firstly I would like to gather some thoughts and ideason how we could go about reviving such (or a very similar aircraft).
I personally come from the gliding world, but due to the logistics issues took up PG.
But my biggest wish was always to be able to blend the aerodynamic controls of a sailplane into a more compact solution, and also the one that would here, in my country, fit in the category of hang gliders, which means that one is able to take off and land outside the designated airfields, which in my case was a major nuisance with gliding as the airport is 130km away from where I live.
**
That means having an aircraft under 70kg that can be foot launched, then it is in the category of hang gliders.
**
Brightstar Millenium IMHO posseses 99% if not all of the qualities many of us seek.
- 3 axis controls
- portability (car roof portable)
- rigid wing
- deregulated category
- can be used outside of designated airfields
*foot launch (this is a requirement to be a deregulated aircraft in my country, that it is possible to launch on foot in sufficient winds)
- open air feeling just like PGs and HGs (idk about you but I always found closed cockpits too sterile, hence why I took up PG among other reasons)
For now the closest we have on a market are the SWIFT, and Archaeopteryx. Both are financially challenging to obtain, to put it modestly, with the swift being more reasonable. Also I dont like how the swift has less wing area compared to Millenium.
How could we go about building such an aircraft? The Millenium has composite D tubes formed in a vacuum under heat, so I dont think majority of us in amateur environment would find that feasible to build.
Would it be possible to build something similar out of aluminium, or a less demanding composite building process?
Unfortunately I am not an aeronautics engineer, just a 3 year engineering undergrad who also took extra physics classes, so I may not be able to go about this on my own. But the idea of this thread is also to let others piggyback with their own ideas, eith the common goal of perhaps having such an aircraft produced.
Another option I thought of was if we could take an ATOS wing and adapt it to use aerodynamic controls? And then just build a cage similar to the Millenium or SWIFT?
I know that interest for such an aircraft exists. I am not going to tag anyone but I know even on this forum I talked with some people who are working on similar "solutions" who would find this interesting, and a solution for what a lot of us want.
