Wig

[lizzienewell]

Here is how the WIG with foldable wing is going. The wings are getting better but slowly. I'm back to the smaller scale and am now using the cardstock wing ribs instead styrene supports for the front to back part of the wing support. I've thickened the ribs to 8 ply to get the stiffness and adding an edge strip that covers the hinge wire. The wire is now fixed within the rib so it doesn't rub against the paper and tear it. The rotation of the hinge is between styrene and metal. It no longer has metal rubbing against paper or fabric.

The wing has been blackened with a Sharpie. I'm working on the stretchable skin out of nylon socks. I tried laundry starch to stablize it, so I could use a sewing machine. It worked so so. I've now bought water soluble stablizing paper that is normally used for quilting and embroidery. It can be run through a printer. You pin the fabric to the paper, sew through both and then dissolve the paper with water. I'll let you know how it works on my next interation.

 

[lizzienewell]

Here it is with the wing skin. The skin is nylon trouser socks cut up into 2.5 " x 2.5" squares and sewn with quilter's monofiliment. I usedlaundry starch as a stabilizer to so I can get it through the sewing machine without bunching up. If you can see black thread on the leading edge it's nylon beading thread. I put it on to try to keep the leading edge from collapsing.

I did this before discovering the soluble stabilizing paper.

 

[Bowdenja]

Hey Lizzie,

It's looking pretty good. Show us a picture with the wings folded and the material attached. Does it bunch up?

Also the body looks like a one piece fiberglass molding...........it is paper? right?

What did you use to cover the joints?

john

 

[lizzienewell]

I'll finish the wings before attaching them so that I don't have to handle the whole model while working on the wings.

The fabric stretchs rather than bunches.

I'm pleased that you think the fusalage looks like fiberglass since that is close to what I'm modeling, but it is paper. It's been a challenge to get the paper smooth over the curves. Some of the cuts(darts?) are hidden along the line between black-and-white.

 

[lizzienewell]

Here are the wings with one folded and the other mostly extended. The fabric sort of shears so it stetches across one diagonal and compresses along the other.
The wing struts stop it from folding smaller. On my next interation I'm going to make it fold smaller.

I'm pleased with how the idea is working out. It seems that I am following up on some things that the Wright brothers did by having wing shape change instead of using flaps.

Lizzie

 

[Bowdenja]

Looks great! Wing warping is the acutal term and it worked enough for them, if I remember correctly your craft has AI so I'm guessing it does the warping with out much pilot input.

Did you use a filler on the seam edges? The curves look very smooth!

john

 

[lizzienewell]

There is no filler. The photo is blurry and black hides flaws. I do use a damp rag to hold the skin down while glueing which helps ease the paper a bit. I saw some Afgany slippers that gave me the idea of how to handle curves. The slippers had leather over the toes that was cut and embroidered in spirals and curves. On thinking about it I realized that the decoraton was functional and allowed the leather to follow the compound curve.

I figure that the wing warping is accomplished by a combination of AI and wireless control to the pilot's brain. It would feel like walking in that you are conciously aware of doing it but not of every micro adjustment of balance. What is it called with human anatomy? You have autonomous and conscious nervous systems that cross over some. The AI part of the craft immitates the autonomous part of your brain and nerves. I think this is a different approach to AI since it immitates the unconscious and not consciousness.

I think that the pilot would have a difficult time distinguising between conscious control, autonomous response, and AI. It's like when you see something comeing towards you and you put hand up to catch it without knowing how you are processing the incoming data.

it needs to happen that fast and that smoothly so that the pilot see a rogue wave and react even before he is concious of seeing it. Possibly a sensor on the craft would pick up the unusual wave before the pilot does. The pilot wouldn't know.

The system could be faster than catching a ball because the impulse isn't slowed by the trip down the arm but goes wireless and the AI processing is electronic rather than slow neurological.

For those who haven't caught my earlier posts, this is a ground effect aircraft that flies a half a wing length above water. This kind of craft can be unstable with rogue waves which is why I'm giving it variable length wings and a fast response system. The wing length will change how high it can fly above the water and will also allow the craft to "brace" and "roll" like a kayak. a brace is when you hydroplane the paddle or wing on the water to lift that side.
Lizzie

 

[lizzienewell]

Here are what I call the pinion fans as they go together. On the top I have one partly done. I still need to sew it to the wing rib, blackened the white edges, and put something over the exposed hinge wire.
Below is the parts of the second pinion fan laid out. Each pinion plate is made of and inner and outer sleave. The outer sleave folds left to right and the inner sleave top to bottom. When sewn together like a window shade, each plate slides inside the larger one next to it.

I guess I should show it folded as well so you can see how one goes plate goes into the other.

Lizzie

 

[shrike]

WIG and wing warping

Lizzie,

Are you faimliar with memory wire? It's a metal wire that can be bent to a given shape, fixed with an electrical current then rebent or straightened. When re-energized, it returns to whatever shape was originally 'fixed' with the initial charge.
A series of such wires woven into a flexible composite, or even plain cloth would allow the AI to warp or even fold the wings without any other mechanical linkages.
Last time I was paying attention to the stuff (about 10 years ago - actually trying to esign a laser-guided flour bag) it had a pretty high power draw, but I'm not sure how much state of the art has improved, and SF progression of technology would let you side-step that (or incorporate it as a plot device)

 

[Bowdenja]

A laser guide flour bag.............hmmm........that sounds like trouble to me.

 

[lizzienewell]

That is almost exactly what I was thinking of. I know that quartze shifts structure ands so changes in volumne in response to temperature. I also know that some silicon compound produce electricity in response to pressure. It it went the other way so that the compound changed volumn in response to electricity you could make an arimid fiber(Kevlar) that changes lenght in response to an electrical current. Weave it into fabric and you can have a wing skin that changes shape. Make it into cables and it can replace servo motors for moving the wings. The nifty thing is that it's closer to solid state with fewer moving parts than a motor.

Surely if someone hasn't developed this they will do it soon. It has so many possibilities for aircraft, buildings, and clothing. You could use it to change the color or acoustical characteristics of a wall. You could set it up to damp particular sounds.

In my science fiction stories I've used it for comfortable lifevests that inflate when immersed in water(deflates itself when flotation not needed) and that double as flakjackets. Wow! comforable armor. This would be based more on changes in viscosity than in length. I'm sorry I forgot the name of the man who discovered this, but I know his granddaughter.

You could use it to move limbs on small robots and on remote control models. Fun for us.

it could be used for true 3-d computer modeling. It could modle the shape in real space using and "electric flour sack" instead of making an illusion of 3-d on a screen. It would be useful for graphs and models for weather prediction.

By being lighter than servos it could reduce commercial aircraft fuel use.

It's so good that someone will develop it.

Lizzie

 

[lizzienewell]

done

Here she is, prototype number 15 or 16 or 20. I've forgotten how many I've made.

It's finally getting better. Maybe two or three more builds so do it. The wings need more tweaking so they close further. The propulsors are attached as securely as I'd like, and there is still some messyness on the the fit of the skin.

The next build gets people in the cockpit.

Oh yes and I'd like hydro foil landing gear. Hm maybe five more prototypes.

Lizzie

 

[Bowdenja]

To quote Freddie Prinze............."looooookinnnnng good!'

 

[lizzienewell]

version 21

Here is the next build of the same model design. On this one the wings are rigged so that I can trim them. Pulling one set of thread brings the wings in and the other set holds them out.

I'm still not content with this version. You can see the gap between between the wing bodies and the pinion fans. The figures inside the cockpit are too flat and they don't fit right. I'm redesigning to lower the seats in the cockpit. The canopy still looks clunky and so do the propulsors. The wing skin is too loose and now that I can hold them out I see that the wings are too long for this type of craft.

Here are pictures of the wings out and in and one with them in while up on a stand. You might be able to see the trim threads. I'm still working on a way to tuck them out of sight. Shortening them a bit may be all they need.

I can't photograph it out on the Inlet today because it's snowing and I don't want to have big gloppy snowflakes in the picture.

Lizzie

 

[Willja67]

Just thought I'd add my two cents. Wing warping is alive today. NASA has modified a F/A-18 with warping wings. It's been awhile since I read the article but I beleive the aircraft has significantly improved roll rate (a regular F-18 already has more roll than a human pilot can tolerate) and probably less drag than a conventional wing.

As far as the wingspan being too long for the aircraft I don't think it looked bad at all. I don't know how familiar you are with aspect ratio but it's the wingspan squared divided by the area. High aspect ratio (long skinny wings)aircraft have much better climb rates and cruise performance than low aspect ratio (short and stubby wings)aircraft which are faster. Getting back to rogue waves you wig craft would need a high aspect ratio wing to get them high enough to clear a wave like that.

 

[lizzienewell]

I believe that wingwarping is new for WIG vessels. My thought on making the warping wings was so it could roll on the surface of the water.

In looking at photos of WIG vessels all of them have very stubby wings. I expect that many of them might be overdoing it on stubbyness. Like you say a longer wing seems like it would be an advantage when encountering rough seas. I expect that my version could opperate out of the ground effect for short periods of time.

Another difference that might require longer wings on my version is that all WIG crafts that I know of use continuous propulsion. The engines are always on. I imagine this one as having intermittant propulsion so that at times it acts like a glider and this would need longer wings. I don't know how to produce an intermittant propulsor but hey this is science-fiction. I'm thinking of either something like a pump-jet or a magneto drive but using nano-tech so that the pumps opperate on the micro or nano scale. Maybe it would have several hundred mole worth of nano-scoopic propellors. They wouldn't have much innertia for stopping and starting.
The magneto-drive idea intregues me but I'm not sure if you could use magneto-drive on air. Maybe if the air were mixed with sea water?

Anyway for the next go-round, I've shortened the wings by about a quarter inch each. I'll see how it looks.

<Just thought I'd add my two cents. Wing warping is alive today. NASA has modified a F/A-18 with warping wings. It's been awhile since I read the article but I beleive the aircraft has significantly improved roll rate (a regular F-18 already has more roll than a human pilot can tolerate) and probably less drag than a conventional wing.

<As far as the wingspan being too long for the aircraft I don't think it looked bad at all. I don't know how familiar you are with aspect ratio but it's the wingspan squared divided by the area. High aspect ratio (long skinny wings)aircraft have much better climb rates and cruise performance than low aspect ratio (short and stubby wings)aircraft which are faster. Getting back to rogue waves you wig craft would need a high aspect ratio wing to get them high enough to clear a wave like that.

 

[Revell-Fan]

BUMPED for priority reasons - do not bump in old threads.

Revell-Fan