Flying wings

Hi All,

Anybody got any thoughts on flying wings as ultralights?

As far as I can see there have been a few attemps at a viable solution but nothing thats founda life. I think one of the originals was the "sun ray 100" from Sun aerospace in the States. I also found the "Facet Opal" and a French one called "The Pellican"

I've been playing with some sketches of a canard flying wing and whilst I'd be the first to admit, I'm no engineer, it sure looks like it should fly.

Anybody want to venture beyond the envelope?

David

Ahh Yes, flying wings, a man after my own heart.

If you haven't already been there, you want to look at the following link at the Homebuilt Airplanes Forum site (and other threads) which has much talk of flying wing design(s).

I should point out though that you either want a flying wing, or a canard, you can't have both on the same plane.

Also have a look at the TWITT site, lots of good info and history. ;)

Arthur.

i have a very rare air to air photo of Scotts Opal on the yahoo groups site classic ultralights, to big to post here. ozzie

Thanks for the input guys. The TWITT site has some interesting ideas.

David

Hi

great to see someone with some unconventional ideas.

Actually I was quite impressed by UFO (the flying disc/wing/prop version, not the gov. coverup version)

Interesting to see that conventional control surfaces are incorporated into UFO. Anyone throw any insight onto it? Apart from what was in the mag a little while ago.

Micgrace

Micgrace micgrace

too big to post here

If you have scanned a picture, dump into photoshop, and under the File control, use Save for Web and use the Quality control to reduce the picture size to under 150k.

We would like to see any photo's of the OPAL :big_grin:

Arthur.

about 6 yrs ago at narromine i bought a video, chris Conroys Air Australia IV.

the only reason i bought it, it had a picture of the facet Opel

on the cover, and sure enough, the first story was about the

Opel, and has quite a bit of in flight footage, take offs and landing

as well a bit on the Late Scott Winton, and his records broken in the

aircraft.

as much as i would love to put the video onto my PC, i would be

breaking copyright laws and cannot do it, so i guess the only other

option is to get into contact with Chris and see if he has any old

copies left.

If the name sounds familiar, he Builds and sells the Sparrow.

facet opal

Hi All,Anybody got any thoughts on flying wings as ultralights?

As far as I can see there have been a few attemps at a viable solution but nothing thats founda life. I think one of the originals was the "sun ray 100" from Sun aerospace in the States. I also found the "Facet Opal" and a French one called "The Pellican"

 

I've been playing with some sketches of a canard flying wing and whilst I'd be the first to admit, I'm no engineer, it sure looks like it should fly.

 

Anybody want to venture beyond the envelope?

 

David

Deans my name flying wings are my game.

dean has been!

some of Scott's Opal. (finally)

The Mitchell wing B-10 and A-10 were quite good flying wing ULs in the States. There was also another one that was a copy of the Northrop Flying wing, single seat pusher with enclosed canopy, that looked quite good. I think it was the Davis Flying wing, don't know what become of it. Also going back to the early 80s there was a converted foot launched glider wing with underslung frame and tip rudders called the Icarus. It was pure weight shift with only tip rudder controls and throttle. Then of course there was the great Easyriser (biplane) with similiar controls as the Icarus.

I flew regularly with a friend in N California who had a Mitchell Wing A10 with Rotax 277 on it. He went everywhere with us that we went, in more 'normal' aeroplanes, and he loved the thing. Turbulance didn't seem to bother it either. Scotts Facet Opel was pure genius and a real shame it ended how it did, somebody needs to get one going again because it flew so well !! IMOP................................................................

Just did some Googling on the Davis Flying wing. Still has an interesting site and a photo of the one I saw at Reno. Also lead to another interesting site on another flying wing design by the name of Rohr......................................................

the Mitchell U2 is a great design that flew on 10 hp in it's stock form.

Yes, Chuck Yeager had a go at the U2, (and Mithell P38), during research he did for an article he did in Penthouse Mag, entitled 'The Light stuff '. He also flew a couple of other ULs of the day. He said he enjoyed it, and it reminded him of the days at Edwards experimenting with towed lifting body aircraft.

So how does a flying wing work? On a more conventional aeroplane you have a horizontal stab and elevator at the back to increase/decrease/maintain the angle of attack of the main wing. How does a flying wing maintain a given AoA or, for that matter, how does it maintain stability?

Peter

Some are very pitch stable by having wing sweep and twist, and use a little weight shift for pitch control. Others use elevons, a mix of aileron and elevator control, with both the ailerons also working as elevators, right on the rear edge of the airfoil. Most would have a LOT of pitch stability built into the wing design. IE: long stable airfoil design with a bit of negative under-camber. Some possibly would also use fine power adjustments to supliment angle of attack control....................................