On Jun 16, 10:08*am, "Ken S. Tucker" wrote:
On Jun 15, 9:16 pm, Le Chaud Lapin wrote:





On Jun 15, 6:34 pm, "Ken S. Tucker" wrote:

I concur with Dan on his last two posts, yeah that's
rare, but anyway...
I designed and tested (models) of a fantastic plane,
but when I chose between putting my wife and kids
in my fantastic plane or into a proven (safe) C172,
I chose the C172.
Here's why: If my machine cracked up due to a fault
in my design, and killed my family except for me, I'd
feel obligated to shoot myself, though I wouldn't.

That said, build your machine, put it threw it's paces
then take on a passenger, who knows what the tag
"EXPERMENTAL" means on the side of the A/C,
and have fun.
Ken-

Perhaps there will not be time in my life to see a design realized,
but if I were so fortunate, I would probably do just that...get in it
myself first.
But before doing that, I would let it fly itself over a desert, since
controls would be software anyway.

That sounds like a good idea.
A 1/4 scale is good, it can be powered by a cheap
chainsaw motor.
Do you have any general ideas for a lay-out yet?

-Le Chaud Lapin-

If you lived close by, I'd give you some help.

I live in Austin, Texas.

Some locals and I have been toying around with the idea of renting a
garage for experiments, though I think that is premature. I would
rather use something like SolidWorks to create a model to verify that
the aircraft would fly first. I do have a vague vision of the form-
factor of the aircraft, but as I see it, there are two crucial things
that need to be determined before putting both feet in the water:

1. The PAV I envision relies on an unproven, unorthodox hypothesis of
the origin of lift. I say concept because there is no weird science
involved like anti-gravity machines or anything like that, but if it
were to fly, it would require a reaxmination of the prevailing
theories. This is the hardest part, and I have been concentrating
only on the lift elements. A lot of math and a prototype of certain
control surfaces would help.

2. The second problem is a problem that would be faced by any designer
of a PAV, and that is the power source. The PAV I envision would have
an extremely high reliance on electrial power (the lift engine itself
would rely on electrical power), and this is a hard problem.
Conventional fuels, in 2008, still appear to be the most pratical
approach, even if the fuel is only used to operate a generator.

As far as the engine, I cannot say what it is yet, but can say that it
doesn't use an ICE.

-Le Chaud Lapin-