This is an extremely fun project that I stumbled upon. Samm Shepard did a fantastic job converting a blower motor components to a centrifugal fan that powered his scratch built foam board airplane.
After taking apart an electric wall heater Samm found some parts that seemed like they really wanted to fly. The next step was to fabricate a foamboard housing for the fan. Attaching a brushless motor was the next logical step! A quick sketch was all that was needed to bring the idea to life.
My favorite quote in the video was: "I'm sure I could power an airplane with this, just point the blowy part backwards, right?"
The initial thrust tests looked promising.
The maiden flight, also known as: "The moment of truth!"
Though it provided plenty of thrust to fly the airplane, it probably would have been more efficient to have a regular propeller. But having the most efficient set up possible wasn't really the point of the exercise. The point was to take something ordinary and make it do something extraordinary.
The camera and the three axis gyro were nice additions for the second flight. The airplane actually looked pretty stable and flew fairly well. Oh, and it sounded pretty cool too! I absolutely loved seeing the DIY spirit in this video and I thought the project couldn't have turned out better. Nice work Samm!
Austin Furey
Flite Test Team Member
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