Quantcast

Ducted fan aircraft

HomeBuiltAirplanes.com

Help Support HomeBuiltAirplanes.com:

danmoser

danmoser

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2010
Messages
642
Location
Sandy, Utah, USA
Doggzilla said:
Practicality first, then performance...
Click to expand...
I disagree.
Performance breakthroughs are usually driven by factors other than practicality.
Many times, it's just some guy trying to do something different, or break some sort of meaningless record.. not necessarily for fame or fortune .. just for the personal satisfaction.. if it occasionally turns out to be practical too, all the better.

Racing competitions with cars and planes have been the source all sorts of terrific innovations, yet winning a race is not an exercise in practicality.
 
Doggzilla

Doggzilla

Well-Known Member
HBA Supporter
Joined
Jun 2, 2013
Messages
2,352
Location
Everywhere USA
danmoser said:
I disagree.
Performance breakthroughs are usually driven by factors other than practicality.
Many times, it's just some guy trying to do something different, or break some sort of meaningless record.. not necessarily for fame or fortune .. just for the personal satisfaction.. if it occasionally turns out to be practical too, all the better.

Racing competitions with cars and planes have been the source all sorts of terrific innovations, yet winning a race is not an exercise in practicality.
Click to expand...
To the contrary, that is a wives tale. If you check out almost any modern feature in a car, almost none debuted in racecars or prototype/racing aircraft. The whole problem with aircraft is that we spend absurd amounts on almost no performance gain, or performance that only matters on paper, and makes the other operational features worse.

Burt Rutan didnt change aviation by thinking as complex as possible, he constantly talks about simplification, and how anybody can make something work by being complex...but a good design is as simple as possible. Same with the skunk works, they keep it as simple and cheap as possible. The first pair of stealth aircraft cost only $35 million for the entire program, and was created by a few guys who kept it as practical as possible.

There is a video on the MIT site about how almost all innovation comes from users who modify their equipment, not from professionals competing. Practicality creates most innovation. Aviation has to learn this sooner or later.
 
DangerZone

DangerZone

Well-Known Member
HBA Supporter
Joined
Sep 5, 2011
Messages
2,134
Location
Zagreb HR
Malish said:
As I said before. This project is in experimental stage. May bee something will need to be change. Only experiment will show. Like everything in aviation, need to have trade off. Like an amphibian aircraft, it's doesn't have good boat and airplane characteristic's. Same things with Ducted Fan airplane. I'm not looking for speed, economy or anything else. Just to have an aircraft, that look's and fly like a jet aircraft, but at fraction of the cost of real jet aircraft.
Click to expand...
Hey Malish, is there any site where we could follow your daily progress? I really like your project...
 
Malish

Malish

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2013
Messages
554
Location
Russia. City of Volgograd
Well, the only one is on Russian EAA forum. Henryk posted link to it somewhere on earlier pages. But it in Russian. Don't have time to write on both forums. But is soon we will get to final assembly and testing. I will post progress in here. Sorry...
 
Doggzilla

Doggzilla

Well-Known Member
HBA Supporter
Joined
Jun 2, 2013
Messages
2,352
Location
Everywhere USA
Malish said:
Well, the only one is on Russian EAA forum. Henryk posted link to it somewhere on earlier pages. But it in Russian. Don't have time to write on both forums. But is soon we will get to final assembly and testing. I will post progress in here. Sorry...
Click to expand...
Good luck! And if you post a link, most of us have automatic translators in our browsers...
 
Malish

Malish

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2013
Messages
554
Location
Russia. City of Volgograd
We started the final assembly of PJ-II Ducted fan aircraft. To save the time(and money too) we decided to make temporary(none retractable) main landing gear to begin initial flight testing. Because our main goal is to test propulsion system first, and none retractable gear will not do much to aircraft performance itself. Because the mains, we also decided to make front gear none retractable too(it was retractable). We disconnected electric actuator and replaced well doors with cover.

You can follow progress on Russian EAA website, starting from post #140 on February 28th(28/02/14)
Àññîöèàöèÿ Ýêñïåðèìåíòàëüíîé Àâèàöèè - PJ-II
Of cause it's in Russian, but you can see the photos. And if you have a questions, please fill free o ask.

I'm sorry, but I don't have much time to translate everything.P2280751 (Large).jpgP2280752 (Large).jpgP2280755 (Large).jpgP2280753 (Large).jpg
 
Jay Kempf

Jay Kempf

Curmudgeon in Training (CIT)
Lifetime Supporter
Joined
Apr 13, 2009
Messages
4,214
Location
Warren, VT USA
Malish said:
We started the final assembly of PJ-II Ducted fan aircraft. To save the time(and money too) we decided to make temporary(none retractable) main landing gear to begin initial flight testing. Because our main goal is to test propulsion system first, and none retractable gear will not do much to aircraft performance itself. Because the mains, we also decided to make front gear none retractable too(it was retractable). We disconnected electric actuator and replaced well doors with cover.

You can follow progress on Russian EAA website, starting from post #140 on February 28th(28/02/14)
Àññîöèàöèÿ Ýêñïåðèìåíòàëüíîé Àâèàöèè - PJ-II
Of cause it's in Russian, but you can see the photos. And if you have a questions, please fill free o ask.

I'm sorry, but I don't have much time to translate everything.View attachment 30754View attachment 30755View attachment 30756View attachment 30757
Click to expand...
Seems a wise decision to fix the gear until you can get the basics sorted. What weight is the entire aircraft coming out to?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Top