new RC glider world speed record

[Kyle Communications]

I know its not our usual stuff but this is pretty incredible

 

548mph from a RC glider doing what they call dynamic soaring

 

 

[old man emu]

I was learning to fly RC slope soarers from a really good site near Camden. It had a southwesterly aspect and was the top of the rise from the Nepean River. The slope rose up quickly, resulting in good orographic lift, plus the occasional thermal coming through. My instructor and some to the experienced pilots got into dynamic soaring. The idea is to launch off the front of a crest and fly to the the back of the crest and dive. Then they would pull up and fly up the back of the crest. When they got to the top, the wind would give them a boost. So, with each pass they would build up speed. 

 

Can't do it anymore because the land to the southwest of the slope is now all

little boxes,

little boxes,

little boxes made of ticky-tacky

Little boxes made of ticky-tacky

And they all look just the same.

[Kyle Communications]

That happened to my favourite slope site as well...now full of houses on Mt Mee about 40km north of Brisbane

 

[skippydiesel]

Okay! So you can get a RC glider to go incredibly fast AND develop painful whiplash at the same time - that's truly talented (hope the health fund covers self inflicted injuries)

 

It would certainly be a boring world, if a few of us didn't come up with some quite extra ordinary pursuits.

[Marty_d]

All I can say is that wing must be incredibly strong.  Imagine the force on it in the turns - same goes for the elevators.

[planedriver]

WOW! That was like watching tennis at centre-court at Wimbledon (minus the strawberries)

It's amazing the thing held together at that speed despite it's very clean design.

Presumably carbon-fibre construction.

 

[kasper]

The other thing to note is that not only are these strong they are build exactly for this one design point only and are apparently horrible to fly in any other way.

 

I have spoken to a guy in the UK who built one for this and they were designing it for the absolute closest to neutral pitch stability on the wing itself they could get so they could put a very small tail a long way out (long carbon tubes are light and very low drag) to get the desired pitch ability without the inherant drag of a more stable wing.

  

[danny_galaga]

Holy crap! Amazing speed but as easy to watch as those high speed slot cars!

[facthunter]

That's about the same speed as a Jet Airliner cruises at. Nev

[FlyBoy1960]

they are investigating the same use of this phenome with new technologies for Electric power generation.  no idea how they are going to use it but you could imagine some sort of wing on a cable computer controlled and going around and around producing electricity. Almost like science fiction !

 

[danny_galaga]

2 hours ago, danny_galaga said:

Holy crap! Amazing speed but as easy to watch as those high speed slot cars!

I forgot to say it's about as interesting to watch  as high speed slot cars 😄

 

Whats the speed of sound at their altitude. Would be cool to see what happens if it goes sonic 😂

[facthunter]

Speed of sound is high at low levels. Dependent on temp if I recall correctly. There would be significant  heating of the glider due to it's speed, not linked to M crit as it's well below that at the stated speed .  Shock stall is a pressure wave usually at the thickest part of a section.  Can cause a reversal of control effect. Nev

[planedriver]

About 760 mph 1100 ft/sec at sea level on a standard day which relates to temperature and air density, and about 660 mph at 35,000 ft.

Obviously that is air speed travelling through a column of air, not ground speed which could increase the figure by 100 mph if flying with a jet stream

Edited January 26, 2021 by planedriver