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Old February 9th 18, 09:36 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default New Glider Dream Elon Musk Flow

On Friday, February 9, 2018 at 1:31:46 PM UTC-5, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
Was so tried of the hard deck discussion thought I would try a discussion of dreams. After seeing the vision of Elon Musk with his Falcon Heavy, I had to pinch myself. Those two boosters landing in sync..

What are some of the innovative, new technology, original thought, scifi dreams, would you like to see in a brand new glider design? Let your inter Elon Musk flow.

We have seen the New Ventus, the JS-3 (very innovative), Dianna 3. So far the South Africans have shown the most original thought.

If you were to design a glider what are your dreams?

18/21 or 15/18 meters

Sustainer, jet, electric, two stroke?

Light weight: I would love to be able to get to 7.5 pounds with a 220 lb pilot+chute and up to 12ish pounds wet. This might take new manufacturing methods and materials. Perhaps pre-preg, vacuum bagging...?

Pedestal mounted wing?


•if you want hyper elon musk futuristic, i've had some interesting ideas that seem totally and completely unfeasable, but then... future technology can surprise you. some of mine are purely imaginative, and not all that practical

First idea:
on-board super high powered de-humidifier. you could dump your ballast just before a climb, and then have the dehumidifier pull water out of the air and replenish water ballast for the next cruise during the climb.

or maybe that's too insanely fast to condense 30 gallons of water out of thin air. i don't know what am i, a scientist? but: suppose you could do it in a half hour rather than a few minutes. that would be perfect for longer record flights where its weak early or late in the day, or helping you get heavy again after dumping during a save.

•Second idea:
telescoping wings. wings that could telescope out to have a higher aspect ratio at the push of a button for long glides or weak weather, and telescope back in to make a lower span, higher wing loading when things are fast. really dynamic flights using many types of lift could benefit from the glider being able to shift gears too. i also thought about a glider that could have its wings sweepback a little sort of like an F-14. wonder how that would work with really fast flight to reduce drag, et cet.

•Smart flaps: automated flaps that make minor adjustments to keep optimal angle of attack

•also, these flaps:

http://www.flxsys.com/flexfoil/

This is something i envisioned for gliders and then i stumbled upon it and realized someone is already working on this! besides eliminating gap seals, drag from gap seals, and improving laminar flow in the aft part of an airfoil, it could be used to modify the airfoil shape for slow and fast flight..


•i always thought it would be cool if there was a glider with Fly-by wire, for very thin wings. the Nixus project is already doing this, so that's cool!
https://www.facebook.com/NixusProjec...3258876640913/

•FES where the prop sits flush in a garage on the fuselage like the more advanced bugwipers do.

•gliders with enough battery power (this one is more battery technology related, enter elon musk) to run a cockpit heater for winter, or high altitude flights flights.