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Odonatapter

262 AnnaAndersdotter  10 months ago

This aircraft is highly maneuverable and has unlimited range, since it doesn't use combustible fuel. This also means that if you crash it into deep water, you can use the attitude indicator to level the wings and bring the nose up until it emerges from the water again.

This craft generates both lift and thrust using flapping wings. It may take some practice to learn how to control it gently. Experiment with different levels of throttle input on takeoff. You may need a relatively high throttle level to get it moving, but you definitely don't need full throttle to keep it moving. The craft has a tendency to pull to one direction when it starts moving from a standstill, so you may need to compensate with yaw input during takeoff. Once it's aloft, this craft can fly very fast, but vibration increases at higher throttle levels. It's most pleasant to fly at partial throttle. Each wing is also a roll and pitch control surface, thanks to the rotators at the wing roots. You only need to use the throttle and stick to take off, fly, and land, but you may want to use trim to control its roll tendency in flight. The control surfaces on the horizontal stabilizers are for trimming roll, not controlling pitch. The craft is well balanced and maneuverable while gliding, which makes landing easy, but it has a tendency to roll left under power. You can use trim to tame that roll tendency while under power. Oh, and it has wing guns for fun. I put them there instead of on the fuselage on purpose, because it produces an interesting firing spread when you attach the guns to flappy wings.

Taking apart JessaLeih's ornithopters helped me figure out how to make a hinge rotator flap, so I didn't have to use a complicated array of cyclic pistons and flappy rotators and hinges to drive the wings.

Spotlights

General Characteristics

  • Created On Windows
  • Wingspan 51.1ft (15.6m)
  • Length 63.6ft (19.4m)
  • Height 16.6ft (5.1m)
  • Empty Weight 6,332lbs (2,872kg)
  • Loaded Weight 6,332lbs (2,872kg)

Performance

  • Wing Loading 10.7lbs/ft2 (52.0kg/m2)
  • Wing Area 594.4ft2 (55.2m2)
  • Drag Points 2532

Parts

  • Number of Parts 75
  • Control Surfaces 6
  • Performance Cost 405