I don’t mean a control line flyer, I mean an actual freeflight R/C fighter. Although Ive never actually seen it done before I sure that it can be. I was told by some sources I consider to be very reliable that almost anything will fly if you put enough thrust behind it. The main problem I see is steering and keeping it under control once its in the air. Anyway, does anyone here have any info (or experience) on how this can be done…or if its ever even been tried?
Unfortunately, I can’t help answer this, but I must say that this is the best question that has ever been asked on these boards.
Perhaps GQ would be a better home for this thread?
And for those who’re unfamiliar with X-Wings, here is Google’s first page of image hits.
No proper info from me either. But I expect if they can get the F117 Stealth bomber* to fly then they can get the probably more aerodynamic x-wing to fly (in theory, of course)
[sub]*Apparently, if it had manual controls like any other plane, it would be virtually impossible for the best pilot to keep it in the air[/sub]
I highly doubt it.
Not in it’s movie form.
Look at where the wings are placed. They’re very far aft. That would mean that the centre of lift would be extremely far aft, so the wings would be lifting, and the nose would end up pitching down.
You’d need to add a set of forward wings (a canard), that generate enough lift to keep the nose in a normal position. Perhaps you could make them out of a clear material, but it would still disrupt the lines of the aircraft and make it significantly less pretty.
I almost agree with St_Ides. The X-Wing form has the centre of lift way too far back. But how are we powering this freeflight RC model? I submit that with a rear-mounted gas engine with a pusher prop we’d have the centre of gravity nearly where it needs to be.
You’d still need small canards to use as elevators, and you’ll need some sort of vertical stabilizers, too. I’d suggest little wingtip-mounted rudders. But by the end, you’ll have something that will probably look more like a biplane version of the Long-EZ than an X-Wing.
If the nose is lightweight (hollow, perhaps) and the rear is sufficiently heavy then I think you dispense with the canards
In some ways it’s a biplane with canterlevered wings rather than strut-braced. With the wings angled it could lend some stability. The V-tail Bonanza functions quite well with ruddervators rather than a vertical stabilizer and conventional empennage. In the case of the x-wing, I think they’d be called elevons, but there are RC planes that use that technique. I’ve flown “pizza box” RC’s that are completely flat with no vertical stabilizer or rudder whatsoever.
A prop would spoil the effect - use a miniature jet engine. Sure, they’re expensive, but what’s money compared to the x-wing experience?
So yes, it’s possible but would take some fiddling and require a pretty decent powered model engine. And if the engine quits it will turn into a lawn dart - just don’t see a lot of gliding potential there.
Estes used to make a rocket shaped like an X-Wing, but damned if I can get their website to enable me to find if they still make it. (Hell, the way their site’s set up, I can’t find anything.) However, there’s one for sale on eBay at the moment. Pretty cheap too. Might be a good place to start.
Wouldn’t you have to curve the X-Wings well…wings? As I recall those suckers aren’t shaped to take advantage of the lift available to wings. It’s really not an atmosphere craft at all. It’s a rocket. Even the scenes where we’ve seen it in atmosphere there has been…
A) Yavin 4…those suckers use rockets to get out of atmosphere in 2 seconds or less.
B) Dagobah. SPLOOSH!
C) Dagobah redux. Never really see it fly
As I recall they use repulsors to acheive lift not aerodynamics. So taking the design from the current X-Wing wouldn’t get it done. You’d have to adapt it as an atmosphere craft.
The OP is correct that given enough thrust anything will fly. But that’s usually where rocketry comes in…not flying.
I had the X-Wing Estes rocket. It will fly vertically just fun. And, on its third flight, I discovered that if one of the wings come loose, it will go up around 15 feet, turn horizontal and fly straight for quite a distance. That’s quite exciting.
So, yeah, I think with enough power, you could get one to fly.
With enough power, you can get a barn door to fly.
I think if you will willing to accept a little canard on the front, you could make a decent flying semi-scale X-wing. Imagine a Rutan long-EZE as a biplane, and you aren’t far off from an X-wing. It might not be all that efficient, or all that stable, but you could do it.
The X-Wing stunt fighter is capable of atmospheric flight. The approach to Cloud City on Bespin is done with atmospheric flight. Another thing I seem to recall from that approach and landing is that the x-foils were in flight position, not attack position. That means they were together and forming a single wing on each side. I realize the cool part of an X-Wing is the wings in attack position, but it might be much more feasible technically to create one for atmospheric flight with the wings in flight position(since I’m guessing you don’t have repulsor technology).
Enjoy,
Steven
Well, I don’t have any information or experience on how this can be done or if its been tried (IANAAD), but I have also heard and read that bit about almost anything will fly if you put enough thrust behind it. If you’re talking about controlled flight through the atmosphere akin to an R/C airplane, your big consideration is going to be control, particularly pitch control. The example Lobsang gave about the F-117 is relevant because in the stealth fighter you have an airplane that is probably not capable of pitch stability without computerized flight controls because of its unconventional shape. Another source of pitch instability and control difficulty might be the relative position of a craft’s aerodynamic center versus its center of mass. Size and configuration of control surfaces obviously also contribute to a craft’s controllability. In the case of the F-117 and several other airplanes which are naturally unstable and/or difficult to control about an axis such as pitch, a key to making them fly is having a computer make the small, rapid control inputs necessary to overcome the inherent instability and/or uncontrollability.
So lets say you’re trying to make an R/C airplane that looks like an X-wing, and lets say we can get sufficient thrust with four R/C ducted fans (or little turbines or whatever R/C jet pilots use) to create sufficient lift with your four wings. Lets also say that in the spirit of not making your X-wing look too fake, you don’t want to put a canard control surface on your airplane.
I believe your challenge will be to overcome a controllability problems that arise largely from not having airplane-like control surfaces anywhere other than the “wings”. I think it is conceivable that if you put aileron/spoiler controls on each wing (alas, a concession to the fake-os), the differential application of those control surfaces could yield a degree of pitch, roll and yaw control. I suspect that controllability in pitch will be the most problematic and could require a degree of automation akin to that used on the computerized aircraft control systems mentioned above. Or, you could try to achieve controllability by employing differential thrust, if you could make a thrust control that was responsive enough - difficult I’d wager, and tough to get roll.
Good luck though!
My two cents.
Perhaps the underside of the forward calendar could be shaped to have lifting body characteristics, to avoid the canard.
Ultimately, the question can’t be answered until you reveal more about how much modification to the X-wing design you’re willing to accept. The absolute minimum would be to smply replace the engines clustered at the back with some working jets or rockets, and pack the interior with fuel and radio control gear.
Were the X-wing wings shown in the movies to have operating elevators/ailerons? X-wing performance suggests their existence, but it also suggests that these things are flying around in atmospheres, which they aren’t. As has been noted, the original wing shapes are not designed for atmospheric lift.
IANA engineer, but I predict theat the minimally modified design would have flight characteristics similar to a rapidly deflating rubber balloon. Is that sufficient?
OTOH, I think you could make some very graceful and attractive design modifications to make it a lot more controllable.