Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #03151
To: "Jaroslav 'Lord Slayer' Pelan" pelanj@feld.cvut.cz
From: Bob Shannon bshannon@tiac.net
Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 19:01:47 -0700
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Flying bots
Jaroslav 'Lord Slayer' Pelan wrote:
>
> Hello,
> how about a model sailplane with some sort of speed detector?
> Instead of phototropic (but still solar powered) make it find the
> longest flighttime possible (let it find the warm air rising). Also
> some mercury switches should be used (you know the 'stall
> warning' from your aircraft simulator don't you?).
Tilt switches canot be used for pitch information, or to detect a stall.
What you need is a tiny spring on the leading edge that moves upwards as
the airflow seperates from the root of the wing, just like a stall
detector
on a small aircraft (Piper or Cessna type).
Thermals are easily detected with an accelerometer of all things, a
glider
pilot is concerned with minimum sink rate.
> Then if it is an
> autonomous being, make some sort of remote control to call it
> back (dog's whistle :-) ). Then sit and watch it flying around you. A
> nice dream isn't it?
I find geting it back is much harder than the power to weight ratio
problem!
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