Aerospace Engineering Glider Fly-off

[astronoman11]

"that's flying?" lol

[jointstrike35STOVL]

Also, one thing I saw in this video was that whoever launches the glider always throws it with a very haphazard acceleration rate. To get the best results, try to throw the glider with a constant or more-fluid acceleration rate. Also, to get the desired lift, one must release the glider in a nose-down attitude (about 2-5 degrees) as it will give the wings better bite into the airflow.

[jointstrike35STOVL]

As a MAE student at WVU, I had to do something like this. I also chose the inverted V-Tail, based on the tail blanketing effect from the rectangular wing.

[petesworld69]

and thats the Aerospace Engineering future ,,good luck plant earth

[FREAK9364]

Why Inverted V stabilizers, Without landing gear, it won't make much different to point them up.

[PW4056]

To be honest, I actually don't know. I actually didn't think it was such a good idea, but seeing as it was three against one....not really much I could do about it.

[johnxxx9]

I don' think the glider is forward heavy. The centre of mass of the glider must at optimum distance in front of the neutral point. This glider looks to have it's majority of weight at the back.

[PW4056]

Basically, every glider in the class had to use the same wing, and we had to perform calculations in order to design the plane. As you can see, some of the aspects of the plane are based on the calculations, while others were based on group choice, such as using the inverted V-tail and the size of the tail. I personally felt that the tail was too small, but this was something that was overruled by the rest of the group. Unfortunately, I don't think it helped, as the plane didn't get very far.

[DoubleAlphaRomeo]

@PW4056 they should've had you launching the plane, unless you were a midget back then

[PW4056]

No, actually, out of the entire group, I was the tallest one. Unfortunately, I was also recording the video, so clearly, that wasn't going to work out too well.

[msnare09]

how is the program for aerospace at u of i. How are the classes and labs?

[johnmor2329]

These guys are having too much fun.

[GreenAce92]

needs lighter wingloading for it to fly farther, unless your trying to build a flying dart...

[PW4056]

Unfortunately, everybody in the class had to use the exact same wing, so the design of the aircraft was built around the wing.

[afrikanrunner81]

how difficult are the Aerospace engineering classes at U of I?