On Fri, 24 Jan 2020 10:57:53 -0800, Colten Coughlin wrote:

On Monday, January 20, 2020 at 9:16:52 AM UTC-6,
wrote:
On Monday, January 20, 2020 at 9:34:30 AM UTC-5,
wrote:
"Is it time to design the sailplane towing version of the Dragonfly
for when we run out of Pawnees? Be interesting to see what the
soaring brain trust could come up with."

If only there was a way to get gliders in the air that didn't require
dangerous and expensive rare airplanes... if only there was a "brain
trust" elsewhere in the world we could look to for answers. Sigh...
well it looks like we're alone with this mystery.

Giant rubber bands? Better yet a giant rubber band powered towplane.

Yes! I think you have come up with a new idea!

One of these was built 10-20 years ago (in California IIRC), but never
flown AFAIK. It wasd pretty much just a giant version of an old-fashioned
rubber powered beginners free flight model, except the rubber motor was
inside a tubular fuselage rather than strung under a wooden beam.

There was a huge (20 ft diameter?) two-blade prop on the front, a long,
stalky two-wheel undercarriage with a single axle across between the
undercarriage legs and a wheel on each end. The 90kg rubber motor was
inside a narrow, tubular wooden (balsa?) fuselage. The pilot sat in a
small open nacelle mounted on the centre of the undercarriage axle. He
held an ordinary RC transmitter that controlled two large servos
connected to the rudder and elevators. No ailerons, flaps or airbrakes
were fitted. The wings had plenty of dihedral for roll stability, which
also meant that simply feeding in rudder would roll it into a turn.

They wound it up using the power take-off on a tractor.

It got as far as taxiing trials with the wings removed.

Not long after that, the website vanished. I don't know why it all went
silent and have never heard anything more about it since then.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org