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Transatlantic Model Airplane Flight to Begin Shortly
dtmos writes "An update on this old story -- Maynard Hill's attempt to fly an 11-lb. model airplane across the Atlantic (from Newfoundland to Ireland) is due to begin tomorrow night, Newfoundland time. This would be the first transatlantic flight by a true model under FAI rules (this plane was too large to qualify). News and updates, background information, some technical info."
...he's in the General Services department at National Geographic (and a better code and hardware hacker, in all senses of the word, than anyone in our IS group). This guy's spent months trying to build a GPS that would fit on your watch face.
/. and to cap it all off, who's doing a TV special about it? Discovery. Ain't that a swift kick in the crotch.
The funny thing here is that he went to NG to offer them coverage - he wasn't looking for funding or anything - and they declined, saying there wouldn't be enough interest. Well now it's in the Post, it's on
Congrats, Foster - clear skies =)
"I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing."
Stuart Little will be able to visit his relatives overseas!
I hope they remember to wind that rubber band up really really tightly...
Common sense is what tells you the world is flat.
At the risk of sounding like a troll, there are some issues here:
1000lb is a bit more than 11lb, and in fact can be already done. That is why the military have radar, guns and missiles. The clever bit here is that this is very small. Very impressive if it makes it all that way.
What would happen to the US if a bomb did go off at the Oscars? Very little. Yes it would be a disaster/massacre of innocents, but it won't affect the economy like the twin towers attack.
This is not a useful model for any type of private cruise missile. Spy plane, maybe. Secret courier, yep. Heavy weapon, erm...nope.
Have been asking about using this for bombs... Well, the US already has these that carry bombs, we're using them in Afghanistan. As far as this actual plane goes and any citizen trying to use one, it could never carry a bomb. It could, however, carry some sort of airborn biological weapon, but there are numerous examples of how hard it would be to actually hurt someone with a small amount of bio warfare.
~ now you know
The hardware design and source code are all GPLed and available. The most recent releases have an OpenGL helicopter simulator for you to play with as well.
-- http://www.swcp.com/~hudson/
if you launch a paper plane from mir it is not going to fily very far at all. ocean water will destroy the paper.
Lift is a function of the shape of the wing's airfoil, the size of the wing, the angle of attack at which the wing is flying, and the speed of the airflow over the wing. It does not equal control and I have no idea what you mean in terms of it rises as a square. Two wings of exactly the same square footage can have different lifting capabilities based solely on the aspect ratio of the wing (ie the length compared the width). That is why you may have noticed that gliders have long skinny wings- they maximize the lift for the given amount of area.
The choppy winds will pose less of a problem in many respects also. The "choppiness" is caused by different aircurrents affecting the aircraft simultaneously. In a 747 moving at 600kts with a 200' length, you are going to intersect numerous sheers of aircurretns repeatedly, bouncing the plane around and causing the "choppiness". A slow tiny thing like this model just isn't going to have that problem.
Personally I wish them well. They are undertaking a great challenge, and I would love to be there with them!
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Well, i guess the next OBVIOUS step is a plane that can cross the Atlantic on nothing but thermals and tailwinds!
I mean, when you can keep an unpowered plane aloft for 36 hours, why not? Well, so far the straight-line distance record is only 226km, but with a GPS autopilot, and a thermal detection unit (get the scientist working on the tube technology immediately!), who knows!
FAI RC Model Records for Gliders
Lift!
thelocust[dot]org
Err - no...
Commercial ATC Operators don't 'see' the aircraft on screen, they 'see' a transponder signal (known as a 'squawk') which is sent by the transponder unit when the ATC Radar strikes a detector on the aircraft. Only Military Radar Operators actually 'see' a true radar return signal.
Disclaimer: I meant what I thought, not what I wrote! What? You can't read my Mind? Oh dear!
... floating along in his rickety fishing vessel in the North Atlantic hundreds of miles off the coast and probably as far from any other human being when suddenly he looks up and sees....
nnnnneeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......
this little red plane buzzing by.
One of two things will happen. Either he'll jump overboard... or he'll finally give up the sauce.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
Now we can lay our own trans-alantic cable.
Looks good on paper at least.
Table-ized A.I.