Wednesday, September 16, 2015

It flies!

Or rather, it glides! After observing that the wing would spin along its longer axis, I thought about putting in a "fuselage" up front to balance the upward moment.

Before I put the fuselage on though, I noticed the wing, depending on which side I threw it, would pitch upwards, while the other side would pitch downwards.

I thought that if the wing pitches up, the fuselage up front would serve to balance against this upward pitching.

And I was right! I taped a strip of foam board up front, and upon throwing the wing, it flew upwards, before falling on its butt. This meant* that the weight was too heavy behind, so I taped on a small piece of plywood to the bottom (see the two tiny pieces of tape sticking out from the fuselage).

After adjusting the plywood weight forward and back, I managed to get it so that it would fly straight before it lost lift and crashed! Wooo!

With this, I am very confident I will be able to get it flying with a motor. I'm probably going to make it a very simple airplane controlled only with a rudder and throttle.

Some notes:
- "Aspect ratio" of the wing before it is rolled up is 5.6; 50.8cm x 9cm.
- The center of gravity is roughly 10mm from the leading edge of the wing.

*this is based on what I've read about aeronautics online; do not take this for science or fact as I do not have proper training.

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