I now have two wing membranes the are attached to the wing spars. The body is made and I have purchased most of the radio gear needed – powerful servos and so on. Tomorrow I will start to fit the complete wings to the body.
Author: colinpalmer@me.com
Making up the wing spar
From my PhD results I have values for the flexural stiffness of each wing bone. I have scaled these values to half size and am making up bundles of carbon fibre rods to replicate these values. It’s a bit trial and error. First I measure the stiffness of the individual rods (by clamping samples to…
Back to work
After a long silence – trip to South America, sailing, catching up… I have started on new wing membranes for the he pterofly project, and a new wing spar to make the pair. Carbon rods coming any day and now just confirming the membrane properties by making up samples for tension testing.
Quetz launch sequence
Just putting together a presentation on limits to size for when Pam and I am in Brazil at the end of the month. Have put a launch sequence on on powerpoint slide. The images were done by James Brown, a rising palaeoartist. Launch
13 June - 1.5m wing on the zip wire
Perfect calm sunny day today, so got the 1.5m wing up on the zip wire. Could only get it up to 5 m/s, but at that speed very little flutter. Think I have the makings of a wing for the flying model. Graph shows the speed trace – time alone the bottom in 0.1 second…
Flight testing the 1.5m wing
Frustrating times. The wing is ready and mounted on its cradle, now just waiting for a calm day. Forecast looks good for Tuesday…..