Inspiration
This was the time and the place.
I have built and flown model aircraft for over 50 of my 58 years. They have provided all manner of rewards punctuated with some hard lessons which have served me well in life. For an avowed and unapologetic avgeek, they offer a connection to aviation, an unmatched creative outlet and an endlessly intriguing intellectual challenge.
The type of model aircraft in which I’m most interested are gliders, which are controlled from the ground by the pilot with a radio link to the airplane. Gliders, or sailplanes as they are often synonymously called, are like any other aircraft absent any means of propulsion other than gravity. That, and the physics of fluid dynamics which will inevitably push the airframe forward when it attempts to fall through the beautifully thin liquid which makes up Earth’s atmosphere.
The subtype of glider which is most the object of this happy obsession are those designed to be flown at any place where the terrain rises up and where the prevailing breeze blows up and along that terrain’s fall line. In order for the air to clear the slope and continue moving downwind, there is no other option than for the air to rise as it follows the slope upwards. If the air rises a little faster than the glider flying in that air descends, the glider can stay aloft as long as the wind keeps blowing. This can easily exceed any ground bound pilot’s endurance. Flights of many minutes or even an hour or more are possible without consuming a single drop of fuel. It’s green, clean and environmentally responsible.
As odd as it may sound, watching my tiny sailplane weave back and forth, working the narrow lift band near the ridge line is something in life I enjoy doing almost more than anything else. The basics are relatively easy to learn, but the skill cannot be fully mastered in a lifetime.
I am a long time fan of Californian Michael Richter’s model sailplane designs which he has been producing under the Dream Flight banner for many years. Michael’s aircraft are beautifully simple and intelligently engineered. They use expanded bead foam and carbon fibre to realize fluid, organic forms which are, in some cases, bird-like flying wings and in other cases more conventional in their configuration. They not only do they look gorgeous but fly superbly. I am in awe of Michael’s work.
I was standing on the dunes of Bob Straub State Park just south of Pacific City on the Oregon Coast, flying Michael’s Ahi design, when I was struck by a singular, compelling thought: after building and flying model aircraft of all sorts for all these years, and inspired by Michael’s outstanding designs, I was going to apply whatever knowledge gathered over five decades to create an aircraft of my own, from scratch.
We live in a new golden age of computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM). These tools are amazingly capable and very affordable. They offer the prospect of taking whatever is in the designer’s head and faithfully capturing it as a digital model. That model can potentially be tested in simulation and revised if necessary before any physical construction occurs. With a finished design, data from that model can be extracted and sent off to the shop for transformation into parts which can then be assembled into a finished, physical product.
At least that’s the theory.
I intend to prove it out, or debunk it, starting from a position of zero experience and zero formal training either in aeronautical engineering or CAD/CAM. The little I know I have acquired honestly in the school of hard knocks in all the years I have been building and flying model aircraft.
Here we go.
Thanks for reading this article written expressly for The Selected Curve, the in-house publication of Struktur3D. Hopefully, this is the first of a continuing series of articles which will follow the progress of the sailplane project. Please subscribe! We’re also on Twitter and Vimeo, but the real day-to-day action is captured on Instagram. Follow us there for seriously detailed, blow-by-blow progress. It may well be more than you ever wanted to know.
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