Flying Machine Help

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I was thinking about entering this event in Chicago where you build a flying machine and attempt to fly it off a 30ft ramp into the wild blue yonder (or straight into the water). If anyone in here has any suggestions that would be great. There are a few rules:

1-Human powered
2-wingspan less than 30’
3-less than 450 lbs.

If anyone else would like to get a team together and submit a plan there are some prizes, and the submission deadline is May 27, the event will be held on August 9 at Monroe Harbor near Chicago’s Grant Park. Check the web site to download an application. The event will be free to attend.

http://www.redbullflugtagchicago.com/photos/photo4.jpg

Click here to find out about applying:
http://www.redbullflugtagchicago.com/registration.php

Click here to view the video footage:
http://www.redbullflugtagchicago.com/action.php

2

A good start for you would be the Daedalus Website. Daedalus was along the same lines of what you seem to propose.

And IANA Aeronautical Engineer, but you will need the longest, most slender wings you can design (think U-2, here). More lift, low speeds.

I’ll see if I can’t dig up a few links from my alma mater about projects like these. . .

Tripler
Embry Riddle ‘99, Bs E.E., PhD. in Beer-Drinkin’.

3

I once built a bicycle-powered helicopter.

It didn’t work.

4

The Daedalus Light Eagle project looks like what I had in mind, the only thing is the wingspan looks longer than the 30’ I am restricted to. I couldnt find any specs to find out for sure though, I will have to go back and look a bit closer later.

Thanks tripler

5

Ultralight aircraft: may be a little too heavy for what you are trying to do, but you should be able to incorporate some ideas.

Another NASA site on human powered aircraft.

And a third site which may aid you in your quest.

Hey man, Google’s full of these things. Just do a search or two.

And no problem. Good luck and let us know how you do.

Tripler
That means pictures. We want pictures.

6

Oh, and a quick question: Does that 450 lb. rule apply to just your airplane or the airplane and pilot?

Tripler
A keen engineering mind notes these things.

7

Final comment, then I’ll shut up:

Rules is rules: 30 foot wingspan. You know what this means?

MULTIPLE WINGS! Think biplanes and triplanes here.

Tripler
I want a 5% consulting fee from any prizes you win. :smiley:

8

the 450lbs includes the pilot as well, so really it can only be 270lbs with my 180 lbs, unless I can find a out of work jockey to pilot this thing.

If I win I will let you know, need to submit a plan by May 27. You know they are having one of these events in Texas soon and the Flugtag Texas site has already approved teams to compete and will post their blueprints on the site soon. So I was going to check out other peoples plans and see what I will be up against.

9

Another UK import - check out the Bognor Birdman competition for comparison.

10

I’d be glad to let you use some of my dsesigns for a a share of the cedit.

11

With Flugtag, it’s not necessarily how far you fly, but how much style you have as you plummet into the water. (The Creativity and Showmanship categories.)

Swiped from http://www.redbullflugtagchicago.com:

Me again…
In other words, if you manage to fly off the ramp and land uneventfully at Meigs Field, you may score high on distance, but zilch on showmanship and creativity. You may also score a lot of unwanted attention from the FAA. :smiley: So have fun with it and don’t sweat the aerodynamics.

12

cool, thanks for the info gotpasswords, hey did you go to the Flugtag event in S.F? Do you know who won, what kind of contraption they used?

13

A “flying machine” made out of folded notebook paper is human powered, flies and if they want showmanship you could do a half gainer with a triple twist after you launch the thing.

14

I was thinking about using a bungee cord to get that carrier launch effect, but not sure if that would be allowed since it says “human powered”. Or does a bungee just hold power? I guess as long as a human pulls the bugee back that would be OK.

15

Just checked the site, they have competitiors blue prints posted for an event in Texas. Is this what I am up against…

http://www.redbullflugtagaustin.com/team-bio.php?pilot_id=56

Ive got to be able to do better than this!