The 835kph Sailplane and Dynamic Soaring

[anorlunda]

I recommend this video. I'm very impressed by the engineering. 835kph, transonic effects, and 120G turns in a RC hobby aircraft; wow!

From the video, I learned about aerodynamics, wind patterns around hills, the idea of dynamic soaring, airfoil design, controls coordination, ballast design, instrumentation, piloting, and ergonomic limiting human effects. Even the prospect of a robotic albatross in the future.

The video is nearly 1 hour long, but the man is a good speaker, his topic is fascinating, and his graphics instructive.

 

[berkeman]

Wow, that was excellent. Thanks @anorlunda.

I love the albatross angle -- nature has already figured this out for a low-speed ultra-low-energy flying application.

It will be interesting to see if his improved swept-wing version will be able to break the sound barrier without external energy input. I'm guessing he will need to (reluctantly) take the human mostly out of the flying loop at those higher speeds. It sounds like the human control loop is already stressed close to reaction time limits.

 

[anorlunda]

I love the albatross angle -- nature has already figured this out for a low-speed ultra-low-energy flying application.

Here's an IEEE video on the albatross' use of dynamic soaring.

 

[rcgldr]

Current dynamic soaring record is 548 mph == 882 kph:

 

[A.T.]

The video is nearly 1 hour long, but the man is a good speaker, his topic is fascinating, and his graphics instructive.

I just made a narrated version of the animation that Spencer Lisenby uses in his talk:

 

[anorlunda]

I just made a narrated version of the animation that Spencer Lisenby uses in his talk:

You're really good at that animation stuff. Is there any particular tool that you use?

 

[dlgoff]

I recommend this video. I'm very impressed by the engineering. 835kph, transonic effects, and 120G turns in a RC hobby aircraft; wow!

From the video, I learned about aerodynamics, wind patterns around hills, the idea of dynamic soaring, airfoil design, controls coordination, ballast design, instrumentation, piloting, and ergonomic limiting human effects. Even the prospect of a robotic albatross in the future.

The video is nearly 1 hour long, but the man is a good speaker, his topic is fascinating, and his graphics instructive.

I recommend this video. I'm very impressed by the engineering. 835kph, transonic effects, and 120G turns in a RC hobby aircraft; wow!

From the video, I learned about aerodynamics, wind patterns around hills, the idea of dynamic soaring, airfoil design, controls coordination, ballast design, instrumentation, piloting, and ergonomic limiting human effects. Even the prospect of a robotic albatross in the future.

The video is nearly 1 hour long, but the man is a good speaker, his topic is fascinating, and his graphics instructive.

I haven't watched the video yet but I experienced the wind sheer layer first hand when doing some hang gliding that had a Rogallo wing back in my 20s . I still have the scars to prove it.

 

[A.T.]

You're really good at that animation stuff. Is there any particular tool that you use?

The 2D was done in Flash, the 3D in Blender.

 

[anorlunda]

New record 877 kph

 

[Filip Larsen]

New record 877 kph

Amazing speeds.

Anyone know what speed are they measuring and how? The fast looping track through air masses moving at different speeds must make this a bit of a challenge no matter if its done by radar, air data or GPS. Or perhaps they estimate the speed geometrically from the track size and timing?

 

[A.T.]

Anyone know what speed are they measuring and how?

They use radar to measure groundspeed on the way upwind. The max airspeed is aprox. that groundspeed plus the windspeed over the ridge, which can be more than 100km/h.

 

[A.T.]

New record 877 kph

That's from 2018. For the current record from 2021 see post #4.

 

[anorlunda]

hat's from 2018. For the current record from 2021 see post #4.

Whoops. Aplogies. @A.T.