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  1. B

    Rethinking Propellers?

    I've not read this whole thread, so forgive me if the NASA PRANDTL prop has already been noted. That said, Al Bowers and his group of NASA interns have studied Ludwig Prandtle's second paper on wing design, where bell shaped lift distribution is formulated. Applied to rotating propellers...
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    Wood Construction Resources

    Spruce/pine/fir questions for those who know aircraft quality wood: Suppose planks of old growth/dense fiber s/p/f were cut and milled into 8" wide boards for interior house decoration. As aged wood that stood for many decades as paneling in somebody's romper room, has it lost mechanical...
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    The Urge to Fly

    Consider the writings of Alex Strojnik and his Laminar Lightplanes trilogy: SPECIAL ALL 3 STROJNIK BOOKS | Aircraft Spruce Rather than using a set of small tubes put together in a high drag aerodynamic plane like Legal Eagle, Strojnik used a single 4" aluminum tube for the fuselage. A 4"...
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    Re-drives Belt or Chain ?

    This discussion should include consideration of the following: These guys have by now gained considerable experience and insight into chain redrive in an ultralight aircraft application. Seems to me that if a chain drive were suitable, its housing could be made out of a short length of...
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    A new approach to bamboo, will this work for aircraft

    Comparing the engineering specs of bamboo vs. doug fir, it seems that you could use half as much bamboo and get the same or greater strength, stiffness, etc. and wind up with about the same weight (but less bulk) per application as fir. Bamboo is a grass plant you can grow in your yard in a few...
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    A new approach to bamboo, will this work for aircraft

    Forgive me if it's already been said here, as I haven't read the whole thread: Tonkin bamboo is one of about a thousand bamboo subspecies, and is reportedly the strongest/stiffest, so is used in fishing rods and bike frames. It has similar stiffness to carbon fiber, per some experts, but is...
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    BMW conversion,

    How much (if any) of the computer control and wiring harness from an 1150 or 1100 engine would plug and play into the 1200 engine? I have an 1150 engine, as well as a running 1100 bike, plus a fair amount of experience working on old BMW car of the late-80s to mid-90s vintage, and have found...
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    Propless ducted fan ?

    Here's a better video of the craft I'm discussing, which has no axial fans, VTOL tilt, etc., but with some much needed explanation shown in its comments section: They put the compressor engine in the cockpit and cut out the forward section of the canopy to serve as the inlet. See the...
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    Propless ducted fan ?

    Huh? Exactly where are the "ordinary axial fans" on the flying model shown briefly at 23-24 seconds and again from above at 1:26-29 into the video? (Video is poorly presented, jumps back and forth between different testbed models, but here I'm referring solely to the 23-24 second and 1:26-29...
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    Propless ducted fan ?

    Let me rephrase my question from above, considering the following testbed for the Coanda propulsion. Consider the modified sailplane model shown in the opening picture and @ 23 seconds into this video: Suppose you transplanted those ~2mm ducts now contained in the oval rings, so the duct...
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    Propless ducted fan ?

    OTOH, the inventors appear to have a flying model propelled by the Coanda phenomenon. The sailplane test aircraft is of unknown size, perhaps a half-scale RC model, which operates in more or less the same flight envelope as a small homebuilt plane. If so, this proves the concept works for a...
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    Bubble party--acrylic canopy transparencies

    Anybody looked at "Vivak" PETG, the strong, tough, impact-resistant clear plastic, ubiquitous in soda pop and water bottles, such as 2 liter Coke? Reportedly, that is what Frenchman M. Columban used in his Luciole aircraft. This stuff is said to be almost as tough as polycarbonate, but less...
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    EFI 4A084 Powered SkyRaider 1

    Any ideas about weight, size, and power of this engine setup? Fuel efficiency?
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    Any feedback on my flying sailboat?

    Why not use a kite sail? Stronger, steadier wind power aloft with far less tipping moment than a heavy mast, and the kite string pulls the boat up rather than pushing it down, so less drag. Probably a lot cheaper to build, and a slew of used kites on Craigslist, etc. to buy cheap and...
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    Ducted fan aircraft

    You're missing the point of my question entirely. Surely Malish and others have run some basic numbers on thrust of such a ducted fan configuration with a given amount of horsepower, vs. using the same horsepower to turn a propeller. Granted, there are pros and cons of either configuration...
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    Simple Motorglider Concept

    Save yourself a lot of time and work by starting with Alex Strojnik's trilogy on laminar lightplanes. He goes through, in plain English, all the various options on planform, efficiency, cost, and time to construct. Bottom line is pod and boom configuration with pusher engine and low boom, end...
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    Ducted fan aircraft

    Malish, how does the performance and fuel consumption of this design compare with using the same engine with a conventional propeller?
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    21st century Volksplane?

    That's essentially what Burt Rutan said 40 years ago regarding converted VW engines vs. used Continental or Lycoming engines for the Varieze: He figured it would be better, smarter, safer, more reliable, and ultimately less expensive to go with a real aircraft engine rather than messing with VW...
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    My Home made propeller design software + Download + Video + Tutorial

    Can your program incorporate bell shaped lift distribution per Prandtl 1933 theory as now researched by Albion Bowers at NASA? This entails some sweep and extra twist at the tips, so the vortex is centered about 70% of span, with less induced drag. Bowers is doing flying wing research and...
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    Does the airfoil shaped fuselage top of the Dyke Delta add lift?

    Yes. T-37 gets ~10% of total lift from its similarly shaped canopy. F-15 can be flown with right wing missing, per Israeli midair collision experience, due to fuselage lift. This may be on YouTube.
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