Solitaire V2: a Burt Rutan inspired build

by RoadRunnerRC | June 27, 2016 | (0) Posted in Challenges

 

      

Burt Rutan has always been one of my heros, he made anything fly, this plane is like may of his designs, efficient. This forward swept canard could be used as a motor glider, fpv rig, or even in smaller sizes a trainer.

Some of the planes that inspired this design:

Car Airplane by Burt Rutan

 

Solitare motorglider:

Varyeze 21: similar to the longeze

And also the voyager 

 

 

And mine: 

 Advantages

 Advantages of my design.

  • Forward swept wings give you more control at low speeds by pushing the air toward the surfaces instead of away. 

 

  •  Canards are almost stall proof making them ideal trainers.

Disadvantages

Disadvantages: 
  • Forward swept wings at high speed can literaly be ripped of by a torque caused by the leading edge of the wing producing more lift
  • Many forward sweptwings suffer from yaw instability, which can cause reverse dutch rolls,however the fact that my plane is a canard and has large vertical fins this should not be too much of an issue.

Why is it whacky technical and futuristic

 Why it is Wacky: 

  •  It's a canard... need i say more.
  •  It's forward swept, but not just the main wing, the canard is forward swept too.*
  •  Center line motor, in between booms, most canard models i have seen are central  pushers or tractors.

*forward sweep gives stability similar to dihedral the maiden flight seems to prove this. 

Why is it Technical: 

  • It has the ability to have control surfaces on both the main wing and canard. (in theory this should give It more control 
  • Unlike most foamboard designs the servos are removeable...( not just when you crash them). This allows for testing of different servos or eve making your swappable more swapable

Why is it Futuristic:

  • Many of Burt Rutans Designs wher extremly futuristic, not that this really counts but you know what ever.
  • Canards statisticaly have less drag equals better fuel economy ( And 94% of statistics are made up :). A.K.A. less polutions so the scientists are happy and we can fly our planes in peace. (this is if canards where used in full scales.) for us that means longer flight times.

1st flight

first half of the  2nd flight

second half of the 2nd flight

Conclusion:

    This plane is a huge happy accident, the plane is super stable and handles great in the air. If i were to do it again i would give it bigger elevons as the plane was lacking in manuverability. I would also recomend a 4s as it was a little on the underpowered end of the spectrum. However this plane flys great. If there are enough interest perhaps i will make some plans. Or a smaller version.

 

 

 
 

 

 

COMMENTS

aviator08 on July 15, 2016
Congratulations on your successful flights!!
Log In to reply
Air-headed Aviator on July 15, 2016
Cool design love the innovation. You won't have to worry much about that 'torque twisting' affect on your model though, it's only a problem on sharply swept forward designs at pretty high speeds, angles in access of 45 derees.
Log In to reply

You need to log-in to comment on articles.


Solitaire V2: a Burt Rutan inspired build