Workshop in SP , Journal by Elvina 25 Nov 09

Todae we went to SP for an aerospace workshop.
speaker give us a briefing on the challenge and the rules.

All of us were plit into 3 groups to go to different labs for a visit.
The first destination that our group visit is to see the launchers.

They havple aced a plane at position to show us how the launcher works.

The second stop is the place where their students usually hang out where they made their project aeroplane .
Their plane that they made is so cool and it is huge.
the size is like the same size of an real plane in airport.

The third destination that we go is the place wher alot of engine are placed.
There is a flight simulator inside the room where u can simulated that u are flying a real plane.
So cool of microsoft for coming up such a program.

Last came the refreshment.
After the refreshment we went back home.

Personally, i think i have found my so called as my future thing...
haha

Trial Test at Singapore Polytechnic on 17 Dec 09

Hi Gliders, 

As mentioned, i have book a timing at the Singapore Polytechnic for a test flight with the launcher.

Timing is from 9.30am to 12 noon. 

Please meet at the same place near Dover mrt. I will transport the gliders and tools from school. 

See you there!

Visit to Singapore Polytechnic on 25th Nov 09

Hi Siling Gliders,

We are going to Singapore Polytechnic for a visit to find out more on Singapore Amazing Flying Machine competition 2010.

Program as follows;

• Competition Briefing & Q&A
• Competition Teams' Status Update
• Aircraft Hanger Site Visit
• Flight Simulator/ Aerospace Lab Visit
• RC Flying Demo
• Aviation Industry, Courses and Career Opportunities

Looks like an exciting day ... please get your cameras ready.

Distance of glider Journal by Derek 11 Nov 09

How to make glider fly further ?

To have a further distance we have make

1.The glider as light as possible

2.A long wing 1m as it is the max lenght

3.Airfoil shade of the wing

4.Body with a long tin rod

The bat wing shape? 

It may help to glider further distance!i hope so =="

The bat wing shade as a top side while airfoil shape below

Last day of training Journal by Derek 11 Nov 09

Time to relax myself,6 day training is hard.

1st day

Understanding what makes a plane glides, as this is the first time we are building a un-powered gilder model plane.

2nd day

Designing our version of a gilder

3rd day

Fabrication and Construction of airfoil wing , and assembling them on the wing made of carbon fiber rod

4th day

After the wing is done, we started to fabricate the  dihedral wing tips

5th day

Assembling wings of the gilder onto the fuselage metal rod

6th day

Fabrication of the stabilizers and assembling  onto the fuselage

Testing the gilder

PROBLEM

The CG(centre of gravity) not right (solved)

How to prevent the gilder flying to a side (Yaw) as it will make line distance coverage measured from launching point shorter.

How can we make the gilder fly further?

Pictures Journal by Klein 8 Nov 09

Journal by klein =) 8 Nov 09

DAY 1(2/10/09)
The very first day of our 6 days training, we learn about the 4 vital forces to take note of a glider.
"Lift" and "Thrust" are so call our good friends in flight while "Drag" and "Gravity" are our bad friends in flight.
We also fold paper planes and complete with each other to see which is best.The day ended with us building our very first glider and we test flight it as well.

DAY 2(3/10/09)
Mr.Leow brought his own glider to show us and tell us what every part do. Derek also brought his heli and put on a show for us.
One of the most important and vital day in our training as we design our gliders.The dimension of the parts we design much be very accurate and that we don't make a single mistake.Next the design of the glider is split it to 3 different view: top, side and front.
Finally we choose our material for our glider.

DAY 3(4/10/09)
The day started with a detail design and everyone is given a part to design, for every part we will given a question that we had to answers.
we begin with fabrication next, we had to be carefully not to break the wood when we cut and saw it.
The last day of training for the week was the most tiring and our hands hurt after the training

Monday Quiz @!@

Hi Siling Gliders, please find the following for some questions that will be posted on monday....

1. What could be a problem for design if the wingspan is too large?

2. Why is airfoil a important characteristic in the design of a wing?

3. What is the function of a vertical and horizontal stabilizer on a glider

4. Where is the center of gravity along the fuselage (body) of a glider?

5. Where should the vertical and horizontal stabilizer be along the fuselage (body) of a glider? and why?

6. What is the function of a dihedral wing?

7. What should be the approach angle be for the wing? What happen if the approach angle is too large?

8. What is lift to drag ratio? How can the design of a plane increase this ratio?
9. What is a stall in areodynamic? When and how can it happen?

Journal by Elvina 5 nov 09

Day1

Presentation of an glider.
there 4 very important forces to take note when a plane glide,
they have 2 good friend and bad friend.
good friend are call lift and thrust.
bad friend are call drag and gravity.

We also folded a simple paper aeroplane.
After lunch, we started to build our first flying glider.
the first flying glider really work,
some of the plane cant fly due to their weight is too heavy,
some of us fly nice and straight forward.
i really enjoy myself in the first training session.

Day2

Design of our glider to see wad kind of shape we want it to be.
The dimension of each part that we design were calculated.
This will ensue we don't make any mistake before making the design.
Next we split the glider drawing into 3 parts by drawing the front view,
top view and side view.
the final thing of the day is to choose our material.
We finalize the material and dimension of the glider.
calculate the dimension is difficult as u don't know
does it work with the length that we put.
the end of the day is fun.

Day3

During detail design, everyone is given a part to design.
For each part, Mr Leow has posted different kind of question and we are
suppose to find out the answer.
Next, we begin fabrication. First cut the wood into small piece and saw it.
last day was tiring as our hand is pain.
really enjoy myself at the training session.
pictue cant be post,
so sorry went got time than i will post.
the end of my 3 days post.

bye(=

Journal by Derek 4 Nov 09 :Length and Width of the wing

Length- 1m

Width-32cm

Why do the glider wing length 1m?

It is to gild further distance as the wing is long.while the longer the wing the heavier it is so we try to keep our wing as light as possible.

Why do the glider wing width 32cm?

The gilder width need to be long , so that the surface area is big to trap a little air below the airfoil for higher pressure to create lift.

Journal by Derek 4 Nov 09 : Fuction of dihedral and airfoil shape

Dihedral-The wings have a dihedral of about 5-15 degrees. The wings should also have a angle of attack of about 2 degrees.It is to stabilize the gilder while flying,without a dihedral angle it is not as good as a gilder that has a dihedral angle.

Airfoil shape-To avoid flow-detachment and "stall," the leading edge of an airfoil must be rounded. To produce flow-deflection as well as the "circulation" required for lift, the trailing edge of an airfoil must be fairly sharp. It is better for gilding because the bottom of the airfoil higher pressure, and the top has a lower pressure while running and it will create a lift.

Journal by Derek 4 Nov 09 : fuction of vertical stabilizer and horzontal stabilizer

Horizontal stabilizer - Horizontal stabilizer is a fixed wing section whose job is to provide stability for the aircraft, to keep it flying straight. The horizontal stabilizer prevents up-and-down, or pitching, motion of the gilder/plane nose.

Without the horizontal stabilizer wht will happen?

The detachment of the horizontal stabilizer would cause the aircraft to pitch down heavily and a steep descent would induce a spin.

Of couse it can still stay airborne....... for 5 sec LOL!

Alaska Air Flight 261: the horizontal stabilizers jackscrew jammed (which is when the jackscrew - a device which controls pitch trimmimg - was not correctly lubricated). The plane crashed off the coast of California in 2000. The result of the jammed jackscrew meant it was extremely difficult to control the pitch of the aircraft, and considering the MD80s run off hydraulic power, the controls were very heavy to operate.

Vertical stabilizer-
The stabilizer increases yaw stability and yaw damping, and as result makes the glider substantially less susceptible to getting into oscillations, and makes it easier to recover from them. It also slows down the glider's roll response slightly, and changes the roll / yaw coupling somewhat.

Without the vertical stabilizer what will happen?

On November 12, 2001, American Airlines Flight 587 ran into air turbulence shortly after taking off from Kennedy International Airport. The vertical stabilizer broke off from a combination of the air turbulence and pilot attempts to compensate for the turbulence.. The Airbus A300 crashed into the Belle Harbor neighborhood of Queens; a borough of New York City. The crash killed all 260 people in the plane and 5 people on the ground. The broken vertical stabilizer was found in the bay a few miles before the airplane hit the ground. When the vertical stabilizer came off the plane turned sideways, its engines broke off, and all control was lost.

This web may help to understand more about gilder http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/BGA/Dan/airplane_parts_act.htm

Journal by huangyan 4 nov 2009

Journal by Derek 4 Nov 09 : Vertical Stabilizer

DO YOU KNOW ,

The stabilizer increases yaw stability and yaw damping, and as result makes the glider substantially less susceptible to getting into oscillations, and makes it easier to recover from them. It also slows down the glider's roll response slightly, and changes the roll / yaw coupling somewhat.

Journal by Huangyan 03 Nov 09

Journal by Derek, 2 Nov 2009

The glider's weight is about 10 grams. A much heavier glider will fly perfectly yet faster.

A much lighter glider may fail to fly correctly because it will fly too slowly. Indeed a too low airspeed changes the way the air moves around the wing Solutions for low speeds can be to use turbulators(a device for improving the flow of air over a wing), to increase the wing chord and/or to use flatter wings.

A friend was afraid to throw the glider so I made a copy of it for him, much lighter, out of very thin balsa sheets. It flies correctly but clearly I reached the limit. A lighter version would need either turbulators or a longer wing chord.Heavier-faster version of this glider is not supposed to fly farther than a lighter-slower version. Speed does not imply distance. There will be differences in flight distance between faster and slower versions but they are not supposed to be tremendous.

http://www.willswing.com/features/sailcloth.asp( material )

Journal By Huangyan, 2 Nov 2009

Today is the first day of training, i had learnt many things from this training.
I've learnt that what are the 4 important forces that we need to understand when a plane flies, namely the Lift, Drag Thrust and Gravity.

I have also build a small glider today. It is fun to build a plane.^^.

Some Videos that might be useful

Here is a video from a school doing a project on a glider... although they are much smaller in scale, but do observe on the design of the wing shape and design.




Observe and study the shape of the wing's cross section.....

Something on the center of gravity.....

Training Schedule

Day 1 : (2 Nov 09)

1. Challenge Announcement Details
2. Flight Science 
3. Building your first flying glider

Day 2: (3 Nov 09)

1. Design of Glider (Shape&Form)
2. Size and Dimensioning  
3. Material Selections

Day 3: (4 Nov 09)

1. Design of Joint & Assembly 
2. Presentation Drawing

Day 4: (9 Nov 09)

1. Fabrication

Day 5: (10 Nov 09)

1. Assembly

Day 6: ( 11 Nov 09)

1. Test Flight and Evaluation 

Flight Science Theory

The Challenge

"The Un-Powered Glider"

To build an Un-powered glider that will be launched from a 10 kg-force catapult.

The rules and constraints

Wingspan  : 0.5m ~ 1m

No kits, servo or any form of electrical devices to be used.

Scoring Components 

Part I ~ The Design Journal 

Part II ~The Presentation

Part III ~The Challenge Day