Vulture 1: Plane plans planned The Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) team would like to assure readers that we will be providing full constructional details of the Vulture 1 aircraft - just as soon as the thing's finished In response to requests for plans of the beast, we've enlisted some top-notch illustrative and CAD operatives to make sure that …
Have you talked to any aeromodellers about this? Or even the BMFA? I've a hunch you materials and construction methods are laughably heavy.
Another scenario amuses me - the volume of air trapped in the straws would expand by a factor of 100 going from sea level to 100k feet. If this had no outlet, the stucture would go pop!
Well, the total weight of the fuselage as currently seen, with the GPS/APRS unit and FlyCam on board camera is 149 grammes, so it's hardly going to be a flying brick.
Regarding the air inside the straws - we've already addressed this. Our release mechanism is based on the expansion of air at altitude, and our trip to Qinetiq's hypobaric chamber gave us a pretty good idea of what would happen if we didn't allow air to vent from the structure.
Accordingly, each void is punctured with a needle, so nothing is going to go bang, trust us.
PARIS has to be created from high quality printer paper, to provide the project with the necessary IT angle. And with PARIS neatly classified as an IT project; well when was the last time you consulted aeromodellers on an IT project? It just wouldn't make sense *shakes head in disbelieve*
How is the plane going to right itself and get into a good gliding attitude assuming you can't determine exactly how it is going to fall at the point of release?
And is it going to be set to try and fly in a straight direction or come down in a big spiralling loop?
Right you lot. We've got the design under control, so you'll just have to trust us on this one. All details are currently classified, so there will be no plans, dimensions, weights dihedral angles, centres of gravity, inside leg measurements or anything else for that matter until Vulture 1 rolls out of the hangar.
I offer you one word, though: survivability. First and foremost, the aircraft must be able to survive the ascent to 20,000 metres, the conditions in the blue yonder and the descent. The structure reflects that prerequisite.
It won't be a championship glider, but it'll fly alright, although quite how it'll fly we'll have to wait and see until we've finished it.
Of course, your constructive comments are always welcome, and we've taken a lot of previous posts on board when mulling our design.
Like seriously, you should go to the Paris articles, re-read everyone from scratch, don't just skim read.
Its embarrasing to read your comments. Each objection you have brought up has been explained in previous articles.
Your latest statement about 'shoot the glue guy' is just fail. They clearly stated that they are doing a messy hot glue job in the mock-up of the wing section. They also stated this because they knew fully qualified members of the fail brigade would post stupid comments over the finishing quality on a test mock up.
Oh yeah, to answer your question, they won't be using hot glue on the wings. It will be neatly secured with epoxy.
Let's cut to the chase, development is clearly accelerating and you must by now have some kind of launch date in mind. Isn't it about time we had a Gloriously Tacky Javascript Countdown Thingy beside all the other trash at the right hand side of Reg pages?
Vulture 1: Countdown
DD:HH:MM:SS.mmm
Till PARIS goes -down- ... er... *up*.
On actual launch day of course we're going to need one of those Olympic Sized Clocks and someone with a Loud Commanding Voice so you can do the launch commentary properly:
"5...4...3...love balloons primed, ignition and Lift Off! Lift Off of Vulture 1! And PARIS has slid off of the launch pole and is thrusting skywards. The cork has popped and she's coming up fast... some scattered applause from mission control here - there hasn't been this much excitement since Moses parted the pink sea."
Now is the time to contact Brian Blessed and one of the Big Names in clock manufacture... or perhaps you could do two birds with one stone and ask Channel Four to lend you Jeff Stelling and that big clock he sits in front of*?
NASA apparently start their countdown a mere 43 hours** or so before launch. Amateurs. We should start now!
* http://www.channel4.com/programmes/countdown/pictures/series-2009/episode-1/countdown-s2009e1-20090306125320-0
** http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/countdown101.html
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