Tin Can Turbine 1st flame test..

Well the title kinda speaks for itself. I wish the results were more impressive, but at least the video has fire in it.  Enjoy : )

Ok….the bad:

Too much fuel…..thats obvious

Too much mechanical friction. The re-worked compressor lost a blade which fouled the mechanism. A new re-re-worked compressor will be constructed. Also, attempts to reduce friction and weight of the turbine shaft and fans will be re-thunked. Yes, I’m inventing new words….I’m aware.

And Conversely….the good:

All of the materials used are actually withstanding these temperatures well.

We have a better starting proceedure

The fuel system (so far) seems quite adequate.

More to come when refinements are accomplished…..

WWI Rogallo Fighter maiden flight video….

So, as I stated in the previous post, I have some low resolution video (sneak preview if you will) of the Maiden Flight of the WWI Rogallo Fighter. The previous post gives a description of the flight, so without further delay, here’s the vid. Enjoy.

As I stated earlier, it’s low-res due to the fact it was taken from an impromptu hat mounted camera, so now we will have to bring some better gear out for the next go and get some better shots. Drawing up the plans for sale to those interested in building thier own version, as well as further refining test flights are next on the list for this one…well, that in addition to having a heck of a lot of fun flying this thing! On a side note, the plans will allow you to detail the design any way you like, so in essence you can turn it into a French, English, or German variant.

For the technical aspect, this one is flying on an old OS LA.25, and has plenty of power. The wings also fold for compact transport.

By the way, to follow the build/design history of this model, click on WWI Rogallo Fighter in the menu bar on the right, and you can then review the entire archive relating to this design.

All for now!

WWI Rogallo Fighter Flies!!!

Video will be arriving shortly, but I am pleased to relate that the WWI Rogallo Fighter has had it’s maiden flight test and passed with flying colors. She flies and flies well.

While attempting taxi tests the first downfield run ended quickly with a tire sticking in a hole and the machine just stopping after a few feet of travel. Determined to “get going a bit better” I added a bit more throttle (roughly half) in the intent to get rolling and skip over the dings in our less than perfect airstrip. To my suprise, at only 1/2 throttle and in less than 4 feet she leapt into the air. In an instant I chopped throttle and she hovered at around 5 feet high and began to descend, then I thought in that split second….what the heck…gave her the juice and she sailed on out. After calming down a smidge from seeing her sailing around above,  and with a few clicks of right and down trim, she cruised at less than half throttle with ease. She will climb like nobody’s business, and is very responsive in turns. Landing was as easy as cruising in, chopping throttle and descendng to a gentle flair. She rolled in right at my feet.

As I said, preliminary vid will be here soon!

Turbine progress continues…

So after some refinement, as well as component searching, the development of the jet turbine is still moving forward. Below are some images from the start till the current date.

 

The above are images of the original conceptualization of the Compressor and turbine fans, all mounted on the central shaft that runs through the entire engine. As I mentioned earlier, after further research it was discovered that a radial compressor fan, as opposed to an axial, (as we were first intending to use and as is seen above), would be a better choice if we had any hope of success. So we designed our first radial compressor fan from plywood, above right. This seems strange in a flame breathing jet engine, but when the engine is running or at least being spooled up to some rpm by an air compressor prior to running, all the flame will be directed out the backside and away from this compressor fan, so plywood has been used succesfully in the past on some small units. We unfortunately, misjudged the rapidity of our fuel delivery system, which lit in the combustion chamber much quicker, and more profusely than we expected, and again as mentioned earlier, by the time we got around to jetting in the compressed air for starting, the compressor was…….well, toast. Ahhhhh, live and learn. Add this to the list of things we figure out to do only once in life…..like licking 9-volt batteries……don’t ask. But I don’t recommend it. : )

On a side note, in the images above you can also see the internal shaft connector, just behind the fan blades to the right, that melted, and which we seem to have found a suitable replacement for. Turns out, it was made of aluminum. This is a no-no, as it will in no way withstand the temperatures inside this unit. At this point we are hoping the metals that we are intending to use here will withstand these temperatures. I’m not sure yet, and if they do, what their duration will be. But aluminum….no way.

You also may be asking yourself why a radial instead of an axial compressor. Our goal is simplicity, and quite simply a radial compressor is more simple and efficient than an axial. To get an axial that will produce the same pressure increase that we would get from a radial, we would need three fan blades in sequence and a specially shaped duct to accomplish the same thing we get from the single radial fan slamming the air outward against the sidewalls of the can housing. It still may not be enough to allow this unit to work, but it’s by far the best choice.

Anyway….some more shots.

 

These above shots are of the construction of the new all metal compressor fan unit. This one shouldn’t burn no matter how stupid I am in the starting process! All very simple to fabricate by the way out of the same tin can stock.

 

And finally above is the unit on the impromptu test stand we are using for run tests. The shot to the right shows the tail with the turbine fan clearly visible. The shot on the left is the intake where the new metal compressor will be inserted. The “horns” on the outside are the fuel inlet ports, the inserts in these regulate the fuel flow and have been adjusted to reduce this flow so that the next run won’t be quite so flooded. If, and thats a big if, we can even get this unit to self sustain and run, I will then work on attaching a compressing exhaust tube to the tail of the unit in an attempt to gain some thrust and efficiency. First things first though……if this thing will even self sustain and not burn up or mechanically fail in the process…..I will be amazed and impressed.

Simple Gas Turbine Project

Yes….I know the word Simple, and Jet Turbine are truly oxymorons and generally do not belong anywhere near each other in the same sentence, but my goal with this experiment is to see if it is at all possible to make a working jet turbine out of common everyday materials and without any over complexity…..in essence….so the average person can make one. I figured climbing Everest in surfing attire with a Sumo wrestler on my back was too small a challenge….so I settled for this instead. Here are some images of its inception:

 

Here are some images of the preliminary fitting of the turbine fan, and the basic design which is crafted from readily available materials….. so far simple cans from the grocery store, and nuts and bolts to create the central turbine shaft.

After this fitting, more research was done and a radial compressor was constructed, as well as a more refined turbine fan. The design is intended to use an alcohol based fuel, and its internals (right now a secret) were constructed in such a way as to attempt to maximize this usage. The unit once completely assembled was dry tested with an aircompressor and spooled up well prior to its first flame test, so fast in fact that it almost sounded like a pneumatic dentist drill.

The first flame test, was conducted last evening, and two flaws were discovered:

1st:  The compressor fan which normaly doesn’t see much heat and was therefore constructed of lite plywood, needs to be made of metal. The starting proceedure was as follows. Fuel was connected, inside burner was lit, small air supply was then turned on after flames exited both ends of the jet…(we didn’t expect this and were suprised at how fast and effective the fuel delivery was, this may have to be reduced….but that was a success at least!)…after turning on the air and beginning to direct it onto the compressor fan inside the jet for starting we noticed the ply compressor blade was already catching on fire. If we had already had the compressor spinning and then “lit” the engine, perhaps we would have avoided this and been able to go further, but, seeing as how things seldom go as planned with experimental designs, recreating the compressor fan in mostly metal seems a good idea for the future.

2nd After dissassembling the engine after it’s first run attempt, we noticed the connector thimble…a threaded tube that accepts both ends of the drive shaft through the middle of the motor, had simply melted into a glob. Since turbines tend to not like melted globs of metal  inside of themselves that once used to connect components spinning at ridiculous rpm’s, we will have to find a suitable, yet simple solution for this before we proceed.

More to come once solutions are found!!!

Watch your back….he’s still out there.

Nope, haven’t flown yet….still raining sporadically….the stir crazy has set in firmly. So, while staring out the windows and wondering when I’ll be able to test pilot the two new Aircraft that are currently sitting on my bench staring at me, I ran across a video I hadn’t seen for a while that brings us squarely back into the RC Aircraft vein once again. Once you see it, the title of this post will make more sense….

You know, humans are fascinating creatures. The first thing that struck me watching this, being an oft-amused spectator  of human behaviour is, what in the world possesed the camera guy to believe it was a good idea to film from an active airstrip!? I know I know, I wasn’t there, but the logic still escapes me.

Secondly, and on an even more humourous note, notice the old guy who owned the plane, when he comes strolling out. He gives the camera man that he’s just plowed over, a cursory glance, but proceeds without hesitating to investigate the state of his triplane! Too funny. The camera guy is definately not his main concern….”duuude, you dinged my bird!” Tell me humans aren’t amusing.

PS. Watch your back, cause you never know when the Red Baron will strike again! ; )

What Lewis and Clark didn’t tell you…..

Yes, I’ve been posting strange oddities of late…..mainly due to the fact I’m waiting for the weather to break so I can do some flying. Till then however, there’s no reason not to add interesting items to the Miscellaneous category. This one’s regarding technology….old and new. Or should I say….rediscovered.

There’s been a revival in the sporting use of big bore air rifles over the past decade, (probably longer really, I’m just not that observant), and, aside from being a really neat way to punch clean little round holes in things at a distance (an activity I’m rather fond of), the technology involved is remarkable. But, as the title indicates…isn’t at all new. Check out the video first, and then we’ll get back to this…. : )

Remarkable power for an air gun isn’t it? But a similar design was used over a century before by none other than historical familiars Lewis and Clark on their voyage of discovery. To them this weapon was a bit of Buck Rogers technology in an age that still was using single shot, muzzleloading black powder smoke poles as its main form of weaponry.

 

Pictured above is most likely the peice that was carried by Lewis and Clark (or a variant of it), the product of the genius of a Tyrolean clockmaker named Bartolemeo Girandoni. A work of wizardry at the time, the piece could fire 22 shots from one compressed air load stored in the buttstock reservoir, and in almost rapid fire succesion. Intended to shock and awe the potentially hostile inhabitants of the lands through which they would pass, it’s amazing to know that these explorers had in their hands, a technology that is only still today, just becoming well regarded for its lethal effectiveness.

Lewis and Clark “impressing” the Natives with the Air Rifle.

More on Steam

Ok, some of you may be asking yourselves, why are you putting steam power-related items on a site named Cartoonplanes anyway!? Well, the simple answer is, cause it’s cool and I like it….so there. But, all semi-kidding aside, there is actually some relation to steam and aircraft. All the way back in the 1840′s a gentleman named Henson, and another named Stringfellow were devising and building prototypes of a flying steam carriage, and steam in flash boilers has been used in modern RC experiments as well. My main interest in steam is just cause its cooky and fun, and I hope to at least one day get a little generator hooked up to a decent homebuilt steam engine of my design and make a little electricity. As far as aircraft design is concerned, a steam system with its fuel, and its water which works great for land based machines, is overly-heavy for aircraft. That being said….it’s hard to stop human ingenuity when it really wants to do something. Enter the Besler Steam Plane. The Besler’s actually gave flying steam power a decent go, and although it ended up being a dead-end and more of a curiosity than anything else, (mainly due to the fact that the plane flew and flew well, just not for any great duration due to the weight limitations of a steam system as I already mentioned) it did prove that steam could fly!  Enjoy the video..

You may have noticed if you watched closely that a neat aspect of the Steam powered plane is the ability to reverse the valve and quickly reverse the engine direction, giving a type of braking effect only found in modern jets.

The start of a new Steam project.

Well, we can’t really post any updates or videos about the aircraft we have waiting in line for maiden flight trials since we are waiting for the never ending rain to stop here. So….in the meantime…..

After building a few smaller scale Steam Engines, one oscillating, and another with an external arm powered valve system, I’ve finally started assembling the parts for a larger version. This time it will be a much more simplified design (using pre-exisitng elements) to make the build more practical and simple. There’s something to building with specificity from scratch components, but there’s also something appealing from creating with readily available components, that can also have a very practical ( if not Fallout-3 ish) appeal.

I was originally going to build an oscillating type from scratch, with all custom made shining brass and copper components, a custom made to order machine of approximately 1″ bore. Then, not too long after beginning the search for components, I saw an article about building steam engines from old 2-cycle weed whacker engines.  Fascinated with this concept, I decided to couple this idea with the fact that my sons’ old fort, (a semi-underground ”A” frame design) needed to be turned into a sod roofed root cellar. The ultimate idea congealed…Semi-underground root cellar-slash-steam shed!! I mean isn’t it obvious!?

Of course, this could take a bit of doing, so as progress posts are created, they will be archived in the “Steam”, category. This will likely be somewhat of a long term project.

But first things first…..the engine itself:

 

Scavanged from an old discarded string trimmer…not sure what cc., but I guess I can measure the bore and figure it out. The inside looks to be in quite good shape and will make a fine steamer. The steam line enters the engine through the spark plug port on the top, and exhausts through the normal exhaust port. This will be a “bash or push valve” type, with a uniflow ball valve as the main steam valve.

This is being posted in the hopes folks find it interesting, or even that they may learn how to build similar items for themselves, but here, clearly, as well as elsewhere in my blog, I strongly urge a great deal of learning and research be done first as quite simply this can kill you or harm you severely if done wrong. So, the same disclaimer is added here and is applied to my entire site...”if you blow yourself up using anything you’ve read here, it’s your fault not mine….if I blow myself up…it’s my fault….not yours. I’m not responsible for anything anyone does with information gleaned here….you’ve been warned. So lets forget unpleasant legalities, and return to the good stuff.

The fort….was built from old discarded decking, and utilized wattle and daub walling in some places. You may recognize this style from old buildings in colonial America, and it is quite effective. As you see, it has stood for over a decade…but now will be replaced with planking. Wattle and daub is a technique where thin wispy forest saplings are woven into a frame, and simple mud, as is the case here, but sometimes mud and grass, straw or even dung, are mixed and basically smeared into, and splotched onto the framework.

 

We never completed the wall all the way up, as my son wanted to be able to “shoot” out of the top, so we stopped walling there. The next shot shows the sod roofing being started, with underlayment of thick plastic.

 

The sod roofed design is one I have been wanting to experiment with for some time and was often used in Nordic regions for storage or even living shelters, and the semi undergound with sod overhead design has some unique attributes, in that, due to the quasi-underground element, it tends to stay very even temperatured….holding heat more in the winter, and staying cooler in the summers. Once grass starts growing on the roof (which I hope I can ultimately accomplish even though this is a somewhat wooded/shaded location), it ends up being not only a very interesting looking structure….but a very efficient one as well.

more to come…….

Roland CII flight trials

With the rogallo fighter being tweaked and prepped for its first flight, I thought I’d also add some of the details of the progress with the Roland CII for a change, as it too is a bit further along in progress than the Rogallo fighter, and has undergone 4 flight attempts. Unfortunately, as is the case with small (under 30″ wingspan) scratchbuilt machines, weight and balance can be very tough to determine. So, many times you hit snags before they get into the air. If you don’t figure out these snags quickly enough, they may not see the sky at all. The Roland, on all 4 attempts, tried to tell me the same thing….planes do this you know, that is if you understand what they are trying say to you, via their behaviour. I won’t let the cat out of the bag yet though, and will detail in a later post just what alterations I performed, and how they worked out…or didn’t. She is undergoing balance and weight changes now though, that should see her trying to leap skyward again, very possibly this weekend….so more to come.

The Roland CII was a very sleek and modern design, and years ahead of it’s time. For a two seater, it was quite agile and posed a considerable threat, as it fused very eloquently the roles of scout/fighter, and two man observation/bomber types.

With a streamlined monocoque fuselage, the precursor of our modern solid skinned (not canvas) fusleage types, and sleek aerodynamicly faired shape, the Roland looked and performed all the more like an aircraft we would recognize today, as opposed to its peers at the time, the planes that initially were flying alongside it when it was first seeing combat.  An example of one of these (the Fokker Eindecker) is immediately below, and as you can see, with a skin of cloth stretched over a wooden (or metallic in the Fokkers case), skeleton, this machine was more motor-driven kite, than aeroplane. More along the lines of what today we would consider an ultra-light.

The Roland however was not without it’s issues. The main one being a nasty habit to nose over on landing, due to poor pilot visibility of the ground, sitting atop the fuselage as he was with both of the biplane wings offering very little view of the approaching field. Also, many Rolands simply ran into things on the field that were unseen by the pilot due to this same field of vision issue.

This shot kinda reminds me of the first few flight attempts I made with the Roland….although my damage wasn’t as severe…in fact it was mininal. Once I get her properly balanced, I think she will be fine. The other good thing about piloting a Roland CII from the ground, instead of the cockpit, is that I won’t ever have the same landing “field of view” problems that the poor fellow above did.

Here is a link to a discussion on my build of the Roland CII, at RCUniverse.