Delta's

[Wowbagger]

Was flying my Ripmax ARTF delta last weekend and was thinking what wondeful flying machines they are. I've had a quite a few, both plan and own design, and all have been completely vice free, even those with all sheet (or, "All sh*te!" as my mate used to say!) flat plate wings. They have a very wide speed range and can be slowed to next to nothing if the CG is anywhere near optimum. Those with nose mounted engines (I was going to say tractor engines until I realised I'd get all the Massey Ferguson jokes!) can fly a lot slower than those with pusher engines as the airflow is maintained over the control surfaces by prop' wash. Most have frightening top speeds too, especially out of long dives (low frontal area). Why they are not more popular I don't know, they'll potter about like any trainer or smoke holes in the sky! Great fun.

If you have an interest in flying wings this site could whet your appetite and get you going on something:

http://www.nurflugel.com/Nurflugel/nurflugel.html

Soz, can't find any delta pix

 

[wonwinglo]

Deltas and Tailless

Could not agree with you more Wowbagger,simple enough to build as well,here is one that I deasigned and built this winter,it is the Lippisch P-10 just waiting to fly her when the weather picks up.

She is a German bomber ( one bomb inside fuselage ) designed by Alexnder Lippisch and called the P-10,a bit like the Me.163 Komet but bigger.

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[Wowbagger]

Ah yes, I'd forgotten that, years ago, I had a Me 163 Comet from the Rojair kit. Flew quite well with a very short duration due to the tiny 2 oz fuel tank. The CG had to be pinpoint too. Don't know why this was as every other flying wing or delta I've had have had very elastic CG positioning.

However, the thing looked terrific in the sky especially if you ran it a bit rich so it left a nice blue smoke trail behind it!

 

[wonwinglo]

Almos forgot,dont forget to reflex the trailing edge up at the tip,otherwise she will not fly very well,almost any tailess will fly with reflex,check out some of these planks that fly off the slopes.

Like the sound of that all smoking Komet Wowbagger,brilliant idea.

I feel a picture coming on,watch this space.

 

[wonwinglo]

Me.163 Komet

Taken at Old Warden last week,a very nice exhibit,the Walter rocket motor which guzzled T-Stoff mixed with C-Stoff to give it the propellent required,the slightest drop left in the tanks spelled disaster as she exploded on landing.

Excellent read-'Rocket Fighter' by Hanna Reich.

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[Wowbagger]

It was in the Comet that Hanna Reich had the accident that caused here such terrible facial injuries. The surgeons did a good job on her as you would never know.

All this talk of delta's has reminded me that a friend of mine in Norway sent me a plan for a delta he designed of a Saab Draken. It's an all sheet job again but looks pretty good. I may get on with that as I bought the timber for it a while ago. Can't find the pix I had, but here's one from his website of (most) of it.

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[duncan]

Nien Nicht KOMET Wowb...Comet was a DH jetliner. as well you know...he he. Agree about beltas (no not a spleking mishtaik). Only thing wrong is visibility ... Just thin as razor blades at normal straight and level flight. Only time you see `em is when banking , climbing etc and what a roll rate . Love them and `wings.:terrific:

 

[Wowbagger]

The words pedantic and ar*e spring to mind, Dunc'!! :cheesygri

Incidently, never used a reflex section myself, always use uprigged elevons. The reason for this is you spoil the inverted end of things with a reflex section. And anyway, at model sizes who can detect a difference in performace? Except maybe on some ten foot span sailplane.

Reason for the dissolving pilot in the Komet ( :cheesygri ) on landing was the glass fuel piping breaking in anything other than a soft landing!

 

[wonwinglo]

The filling of Komet tanks was a punishment,one slip with the cartalysts T & C would result in a very large bang,this was demonstrated with a Luftwaffe officer pouring a miniscule amount onto some concrete with a long stick,the result was a big hiss of smoke followed by a large swoosh...!!! such a volatile material,although they had almost finalised another liquid which would give the desired thrust without the risks to life and limb,like many things that they were so near to the war got in the way,together with inner wrangling amongst the higher archy,same old story of rush things into production despite what the scientists told them.

There is a lot of interest at the moment in the German unfinished projects in America.

 

[duncan]

Have you checked-out the Luft46 site ? The artwork pages are great for ideas on finishing your Luftwaffe favourite. Some amazing aircraft, not all of them fantasy.

 

[wonwinglo]

Yes Duncan sure have,I designed my Lippisch P-10 Prop from the small three views there,a really dedicated site.

What becomes apparent is that a lot of these designs were little more than suicide bombers,designed around the big bomb itself,some of the extended prop shafts suffered from the main concern at that time 'metal quality' if they had the right materials a the time the Me.262 would have been a superb design not let down with un-reliable powerplants blowing up after about 5 hours running time.

It would have been great to have been a fly on the wall of some of these factories,sabotage was not unheard of either whilst building the aircraft,would not liked to have been in the shoes of anyone who was caught !

 

[Wowbagger]

Follow this link for a couple of elevon mixers suitable for flying wings, delta's and models incorporating flapperons (STOL).

http://www.scale-models.co.uk/showthread.php?p=871#post871