Olin
Would you share the name of the book that you found useful
for aerodynamics ?

I look forward to seeing a video of your unstable project fly ( or  
not ).
Gus


> On Apr 2, 2010, at 10:06 AM, Olin Lathrop wrote:
>
> Russell McMahon wrote:
>> Commendable attitude BUT it depends on what you want to achieve and
>> the time scale.
>> If you want something flying AND controlled in a timescale of months
>> then chances are that first time round copying a proven design will  
>> be
>> most useful. You can always do the next one from scratch.
>>
>> The thrill of doing it all one self is great.
>>
>> BUT you have to decide how much weighting to give  the potential for
>> not managing to get anything flying at all, or not getting good
>> control.
>
> I can understand Neil's attitude.  If learning and the fun of getting
> something working you figured out yourself are the motivators, then
> absolutely try it youself first.  Then look at other designs when it's
> mostly working or you get stuck.
>
> I find that a much better way to learn than someone just telling you.
> Mostly that's because most people that are credible enough to teach  
> the
> stuff are also stuck in a rut about what the "right" way is.  It's a  
> lot
> easier to think outside the box when you've never looked inside.  Most
> things aren't as complicated as they seem.  Going back to first  
> principles
> and the basic physics and thinking about the problem from there can  
> lead to
> interesting solutions others are overlooking.
>
> I'm doing something like this for the fun of it right now on the side.
> Maybe I'll get back to it this weekend.  I've always been interested  
> in
> automated flight control.  I'm trying to make something glide nicely  
> that
> would be unstable without active control.  I did read up on  
> aerodynamics for
> that purpose since that's not the part I'm interested in developing  
> on my
> own.  In the process I found that most aerodynamics texts are  
> rubbish or
> can't see the concepts for the forest of equations.  I finally found  
> a great
> book that didn't contradict the basic physics that I do know and that
> introduces concepts intuitively, then uses equations to back up the  
> details.
> That's how all books should be written.
>
> In case anyone is interested, my little project is a inherently  
> unstable
> flying wing.  Just for the challenge of it, I'm not allowing any  
> vertical
> surfaces.  Everything is being done with 4 control surfaces on the  
> trailing
> edge of the wing.  There are 3 degrees of freedom to control.  This  
> can be
> done with 3 control surfaces if they can be arranged arbitrarily.  I'm
> pretty sure, but haven't actually rigorously proven, that if the  
> control
> surfaces are all in the same plane that it takes 4 of them.
>
> So far I've got a small board with a PIC 24 on it, batteries, and  
> outputs to
> control 4 hobby servos that move the control surfaces.  The board  
> also has a
> 3 axis accellerometer and a 2 axis gyro.  So far I've only  
> implemented the
> accellerometer and just enough flight logic to test on the bench.   
> It's cool
> in that I can tilt the board and see the control surface move so as  
> to try
> to correct the tilt.
>
> The weather is starting to get nice here, so I'll probably feel the  
> urge to
> advance the project to the point of flight tests soon.
>
>
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