Quick Build 'Flying Machine'

Powered?

Nope... I assume not.
You know pretty much as much as me as I quoted the E-mail almost in it's entirity, with a few brevity edits...
Del

Can bits of a Hyundai Accent be used in the build?

Since you will have the old Singer, is there enough blind material and cord for one of these ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlrRzfvUffw

Wow! That's awesome! I wouldn't try a "quick" build on any thing I was going to fly in, or sky dive with...You do have enough time to build an awesome kite though, to be flown from the ground...

http://www.kitesrus.com/

http://makeakite.ryanpublishingandreviews.com/category/kite-plans/

Lots of these on the internet. With detailed plans. Maybe use your wood and fabric, and make one of those. Heck, it might even fly.

Del,

Today in Auckland, but don't try this one for the quick build!

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/national/news/video.cfm?c_id=1503075&gal_cid=1503075&gallery_id=122790

<...scrap wood...>

Balsa!

You could, in 5 hours, build a kite, but I would guess, NOT an airplane. There are some ultra-lights that are simply powered gliders, so in 5 hours,its possible, but Not probable. Even a piper-cub derivative could take hundreds of hours. If every sub-assembly was already built, maybe you could put them together in 5 hours, but not build & assemble from scratch. Plus, the woods in a Stinson-wing, for example, are special aircraft weights/grades. Left-over fabrics may be, but probably are not, strong enough to stretch-over a wooden wing framing, and then the fabrics were usually "doped". Of course epoxies may do better than dope. You could do a plane as a static-sculpture, but not as a flyable piece, and even then, I don't know if it can be done in 5 hours,even with 6 people. Still, TRY it, see how far you can get in 5 hours. The Wright brothers' Father opposed their flying efforts, but it merely gave them impetus. But I'll bet they had more than 500 hours building their Wright-flyer.

I would suggest a simple hang glider design of sorts. Minimum parts and materials but still well understood mechanics behind it and easily scalable to fit what time and materials you have available.

Darn you beat me to it! That was going to be my suggestion.

I like the idea of one of those wonderful kites with a dummy sitting in the rigging, it covers the story without risking human life and limb (BTW, do students qualify as human?).

Great project.

Sounds like fun Del. With out a doubt the best wood aircraft to come into being out of desperation in WW II was the Mosquito (DeHavlin I believe). It was a beautiful and out performed everyone's hopes and dreams. The German fighters were afraid of it!

I think it would make a clear Tribute to the airmen that fought that Bloody War.

A scaled down version would be a challenge and fun to build.

Well not in five hours? but highly doable

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culver_Cadet

Even better, there are flocks of these flying out there

But it occurs you could put a dead weight in place of the engine and a tow strap between the wheels and drag it into the air.

Just don't let loved ones do the test flight

Here's another idea, recently on CR4.

Take a look at "RC autogiro" or "RC autogyro". Easy to build. The big rotor is free running. It either has an independent pushing propeller, or somebody pulling it running. It will lift into the air readily. There are man carrying powered / unpowered ones flying. The unpowered ones were towed in the air with a car and cable. Kitplanes magazine, among others have periodically articles and listings of all amateur things flying, this one too, for reference. Or look in a RC modeling mag. I think.

As a small or medium size model goes, I do not think anything else is as simple. The profile of the big rotor is nothing fancy. On a scale model I would start with tilted flat blades, only later improve it toward an airfoil.

In builds like these there are two major enemies: weight and flying speed.

It is vital to keep the build weight as low as possible to have any chance of success (regardless of the design). The flying speed is generally under estimated. That's why you see most participants in 'birdman of Bognor' contests go down very, very quickly. If they may use a launch mechanism, I would include one in the build. Look at pictures of the first flight of the Wright brothers in Kitty Hawk. They had a rail with a pulley system and weights that dropped behind the plane.

Regarding the design I would certainly go for the KISS principle. A copy of an early Langley or a Cody glider would be really cool. ;-)

Here's a plan of the design I am refering to:

http://www.apogeerockets.com/education/downloads/Newsletter08.pdf

Dirigible/zeppelin. Milo

One of these, perhaps? A worthy successor to the R100, and better than the R101. And being built at Cardington, where Neville Shute worked.

A catapult or siege engine comes to mind. The "pilot" could wear wings crafted from the curtain scraps.

There was a program on , I guess you Brits call it the telly, that was caled "JUNKYARD WARS" where two competing teams would try to outdo each other using scraps from a junk yard to build different machines. On one program they actually built a flying machine that worked and I believe it was piloted by a BRIT.

Just an idea.

oilcan13

There's no such thing as a Brit. English, Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish, yes. Not "Brit".

"Vive la difference".

I disagree. Any immigrant who takes citizenship becomes British. Although a Nigerian colleague of mine always claims to be Scottish....

For our Colonial cousins, the correct term is "Briton*" (without the "Ancient" in this case) NOT Brit. You know how those from the Southern States hate to be refered to as "Yankies" ...?

*_{^{But never Breton. They're quite different.}}

It would be "yankee", but you can call we yanks(plural) anything you care to, as long as it's not, late for dinner. However, the British, of ALL people, should KNOW the difference between a Southerner and a D--n-Yankee!

Lord luv 'ee, thee vergot Cornwall!

I love the idea, but some consideration should be given to the people on the ground. an Item that seems to be forgotten in most of our high flying expeditions. An alternator from a volvo coming through the roof would play havoc with my computer. But, again that would save me a lot of time...

I'm no expert but I don't think the Singer will provide enough power for lift off.

My Daughter has just been round and says thanks to everyone, she's been following the thread and has been given plenty of inspiration. She hasn't registered as "I'm not and engineer".
She was ammused by the Hyundai reference too
Del

within 5 hours you could rent a balloon

Just combine bricks, and photo-shop. Anything can be made to fly. It would certainly be amusing to watch the careful crafting of bricks to resemble a plane, and then to show it flying.

Testing a wing design could be deadly.

Testing a balloon is safer. One foot off the ground = success.

The film could show a home built apparatus for separating hydrogen from water. Let it run "overnight." In the morning, come in to discover your envelope filled with gas (helium). Assemble the gondola and attach it in your 5 hours of day light.

Allowing for some fiction in actual implementation, you could build a balloon using "proper physical principles" and show the process on film.

-A-

Yes of course, don't really use the hydrogen actually use helium instead. But don't tell the viewers.

Over here they use acetylene gas to fill balloons that float. Different party tricks eventuate.