Would you fly an amature designed airplane?

[CCS]

Suppose some college engineering drop out designed and build a pedal powered airplane and asked you to fly it for prize money, of which you get 10%. The airplane looks well built, but who knows. The pilot has kept its design secret from other engineers for fear of them stealing his idea. He has done small tests with duplicate parts, and you only have to fly it 10 feet above the ground.

If you were physically fit enough to fly it, and the designer was not, would you fly it?

 

[oni]

No

 

[Ori83]

The airplane looks well built, but who knows.

LOL thank you for making my day !!! :bravo:

 

[s.a.f]

10ft off the ground sounds ok, but how fast would you be going?

 

[GeminiX]

Depends on local sub-ICAO regulations, CAA registration, EC 785/2004 status and of course the engineer and a thorough inspection of the aircraft; you would need all that as a minimum then of course you need to find a pilot with the appropriate rating, PPLa or just microlight, flexwing or 3 axis etc.

Or are you basically saying you're going to knock an aircraft together in your shed and ask some random guy with good legs to fly it?

Basically, you need to provide a lot more information

edit; are you going for the one of the Kremer prizes? If so, you need to be building an aircraft that can sustain about 30 knotts for an hour, that's quite hard...

 

[CCS]

Option #2, except the guys are not totally random. I'm emailing guys on Plentyoffish who look kind of like Bruce Lee and say in their profiles that they like to work out. But I'm not just knocking one together. I have put plenty of thought into the design.

 

[oni]

Option #2, except the guys are not totally random. I'm emailing guys on Plentyoffish who look kind of like Bruce Lee and say in their profiles that they like to work out. But I'm not just knocking one together. I have put plenty of thought into the design.

You are trying to find men who look kind of like Bruce Lee on a scam dating site?

You do know that you don't have to make an airplane to come out of the closet.

 

[GeminiX]

Just out of curiosity, have you actually built or flown any aircraft before or have a background in aerospace engineering?

I feel like I'm missing part of this thread, it seems somewhat surreal.

 

[oni]

Just out of curiosity, have you actually built or flown any aircraft before or have a background in aerospace engineering?

I feel like I'm missing part of this thread, it seems somewhat surreal.

I think this will help you out.................. :whistle: GeminiX.

viewtopic.php?f=65&t=56215

 

[GeminiX]

I think this will help you out.................. :whistle: GeminiX.

viewtopic.php?f=65&t=56215

Ah, thx

 

[cuebald]

lol, I'd buy one. Got any plans for it?

And it would have to take off under its own power rather than being towed by anything or being rolled down a hill. They say cardio lowers testosterone levels, which can only be good for hair.

 

[GeminiX]

You would need to be a genetic freak to get anywhere in it; the amount of physical traning and *huge* amounts of calories you would need to consume in order to have sustainable energy to generate both the lift and thrust for flight over any useful distance are immense; Easily in the olympic athlete range for physical disciplines.

That being said, in theory, you can build a large, lightweight super-lift wing. There are several designs for wings such as this, pneumatic channel wings, whitcomb foils etc. but building it large enough to give you the efficient lift means the aircraft is prone to the slightest breeze. Your pilot will simply not be able to produce enough power to compensate for head and sidewinds.

If you go down the powered route then of course there is the license required. Even for a microlight there is a lot of training and regular flying hours required, plus instrument training for night use assuming the aircraft has any form of avionics system.

There are very good reasons why light portable aircraft are not widely used for commuting, the technology is just one part of it

 

[The Gardener]

Yeah, I think the physics make pedal powered flight impossilble. I bet the coefficient of gravity would render this FAR out of the realm of possibility.

Take the mass of a human being times gravity/friction... and figure out how much energy would be required to lift it off the ground, or even propel it forward fast enough to take advantage of aerodynamics... I think that number is higher than the exertive output of ANY human being. And by a country mile.

Don't forget, the Wright Brothers launched their "airplane" with a catapult. The motor only helped preserve and elongate the glide that was already established by the catapult.... and even with both of these forces, their "airplane" only glided a few hundred feet.

 

[CCS]

Gardener,

The Daedalus few 76 miles in about 4 hours, non-stop. http://pictures.propdesigner.co.uk/html ... s_1_0.html
Someone like me could fly it 30 minutes. It is not a practical form of transportation, since a slight gust could break it. But human powered flight has been going on since the 70's.

Have a look at all these:
http://pictures.propdesigner.co.uk/

The musculair 2 flew 30 mph.
http://pictures.propdesigner.co.uk/html ... ery_0.html

And I looked at its structure. It is not optimized. I could have flown it 30 mph with my improvements.

All of this is on wikipedia and many other reputable sites. The Daedalus was built by a student team at MIT even though their professors said they could not do it.