Wingless flight

by Subsonic Mike | June 6, 2013 | (0) Posted in Projects

Hello!

 

I though I would share with you all a little project of mine, where I decided to throw away with those useless things aircraft call "wings".

While trying to designing this aircraft I searched the web for any RC Lifting body's. I found 2. And a whole load of NASA full size Lifting body's. As for guidance, zilch.

I bit my lip and stuck to the thought "if I base it around a airfoil, whats the worst that can happen?" Much to my surprise, something emerged that might just fly.

So skip forward about a week, I have perfected the disgn and printed ribs- all ready for construction. One problem- im broke.  Balsa was now out the picture and a cheaper material know as card and paper was in.

 

The build:

All card ribs assembled and awaiting the stressed skin paper, its surprisingly strong at this stage!

Skin on. Notice I forgot to add the fins.

Flying:

The first throw was to be expected, it didn't fly! Not to be downhearted I added wight and a trim tab.

Many throws later, it was trimmed and flying (just)

I then notice the fins are missing. With these added the flying performance was dramatically improved. Instead of being unstable in roll it flew like a dart.

Conclusion:

All in all a very successful project! I recommend this as a fun and interesting project!

 

Thanks for taking the time to read, any questions just ask!

 

Michael

 

 

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COMMENTS

eagle4 on June 8, 2013
looking forward to see how this goes. but as far as RC lifting bodies go, a bunch of people have made Burnelli planes, me included, i'm just waiting for the weather and life to line up so i can take it out for a maiden. Burnelli invented the lifting body design, but i like how you're going for the NASA wingless versions. keep it up mate
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twan1997 on June 8, 2013
hahah, this is sort of like flying wings, except the wing is thrown away, not the fuselage :D
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Arend on June 9, 2013
I am thinking about building a X33 venturestar, just as a glider to drop from a quad. There is exactly one schematic and apparently nobody build it before as a flying model. And you are so right, flying bodies seam to have no presence on the internet. I build a small mock up and with serious weight in the nose it "glides"
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Subsonic Mike on June 9, 2013
Good man! More people should be making these lifting bodies.
Which reminds me. If anyone wants it to make their own version, I have a PDF with all the ribs.
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packocrayons on January 2, 2015
I'm interested in the pdf of the ribs, thinking of making a powered version. Any idea on how one would do elevons?
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Subsonic Mike on November 5, 2015
Hello,

If you still want the PDF I still have it somewhere, if not I can easily recreate it.

Also, since this design is 4 years old (and holds the name of body 1 revision 2) it has been built upon and ultimately developed into a almost entirely new lifting / blended body.

I have been working on this new lifting body for at least a year now and am a little sensitive to whom I send plans too. Not to mention it is untested (apart from CFD simulations).

Now I dont believe this site has private message capability, if you have an RCGroups account then message me over there.
My username is the same as it is over here, SubsonicMike.


Thanks,

Sorry this message is very late in response.

Michael
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Wingless flight