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Why would there be a problem with the main engine? It seems like you should fix/redesign/etc that instead of adding another engine. It reminds me of code that catches all exceptions instead of fixing the problem so those exceptions can never happen.
Dumb question, could this combined with the power from the regular engine give you thrust greater than the weight of your plane and potentially allow vertical take off and landing (imagine the nose pointed up, And obviously you'd need special landing legs, etc)
There are no dumb questions, but if you were a pilot, this would certainly be a dumb thing to try. 1. in light planes, "the weight of the plane" is a little more complicated, since fuel can increase the weight of your plane by, like, 40% or so. We're talking, like, 500 pounds of fuel on a 1600 pound plane. 2. a helicopter has a very complex mechanism to give it control based on propellor movement. an airplane trying…
Couldn't the large area of the wings counteract the counter rotation or at decrease it to an acceptable level?
Dumb question, could this combined with the power from the regular engine give you thrust greater than the weight of your plane and potentially allow vertical take off and landing (imagine the nose pointed up, And obviously you'd need special landing legs, etc)
There are no dumb questions, but if you were a pilot, this would certainly be a dumb thing to try. 1. in light planes, "the weight of the plane" is a little more complicated, since fuel can increase the weight of your plane by, like, 40% or so. We're talking, like, 500 pounds of fuel on a 1600 pound plane. 2. a helicopter has a very complex mechanism to give it control based on propellor movement. an airplane trying…
Controlled prop hanging is done all the time with RC planes. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAtByLuzXpI
This being an emergency only thing how does it last? If it needs a new £5000 battery every 5 years just to sit there in case I can imagine many pilots just not being able to justify it. Given the target market.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are no dumb questions, but if you were a pilot, this would certainly be a dumb thing to try. 1. in light planes, "the weight of the plane" is a little more complicated, since fuel can increase the weight of your plane by, like, 40% or so. We're talking, like, 500 pounds of fuel on a 1600 pound plane. 2. a helicopter has a very complex mechanism to give it control based on propellor movement. an airplane trying…
Thanks, makes sense for this case. I'm still wondering though, say for a purely electric plane designed for this type of VTOL from the ground up, is it workable? Couldn't the large area of the wings counteract the counter rotation or at decrease it to an acceptable level?
Any plane with thrust-to-weight >1 can fly vertically, but flying vertically and taking off vertically are two entirely different things. For example, the ability to convert engine shaft horsepower to usable thrust is very poor at zero airspeed. The V-22 osprey shows that it's both possible and difficult to take off vertically with propellers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are no dumb questions, but if you were a pilot, this would certainly be a dumb thing to try. 1. in light planes, "the weight of the plane" is a little more complicated, since fuel can increase the weight of your plane by, like, 40% or so. We're talking, like, 500 pounds of fuel on a 1600 pound plane. 2. a helicopter has a very complex mechanism to give it control based on propellor movement. an airplane trying…
> "an airplane trying to hover without these mechanisms would be essentially uncontrolled. it would almost certainly spin like a top" Controlled prop hanging is done all the time with RC planes. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAtByLuzXpI
Wonderful idea. I do wonder how that changes the center of gravity and how much weight is diminished for cargo but seems well worth it. When the engine goes out you generally only have 10 seconds to decide where to land. Now it seems you have many minutes to find a place. In most circumstances I'd think this is better then the parachutes for planes because you have a chance to save very expensive airplanes.
I agree that this is better than parachutes , but not because of the cost of the plane. If your engine is failing, your plane failed you and isn't worth saving. that's what insurance is for : ) the moment you pull a parachute (for example the CAPS on the cirrus , the plane is totaled anyway). The most dangerous place to have a failure is during initial take off (low hour student pilot here). The engine kicking on wou…
The next step for this electric engine would be to replace that second heavy, expensive engine every large airplane carries around...
Additionally, the full power of the two engines is only needed at takeoff. At cruise they only run at 30-40%. An electric motor with a relativly small battery would be enough to provide enough power at takeoff.
CFIT (controlled flight into terrain). Sadly common, it's how Kennedy junior died and many others.
Stall/spin. Common on take off and landing and avoidance is a huge emphasis in training.
Visual flight into instrument conditions. If untrained what often happens is the pilot will end up in a spin/spiral into the ground or doing a CFIT.
Also, running out of gas or engine failure requires the pilot to activate the backup correctly. Sounds silly, but I recall a pilot crossing the english channel with her family and forgetting to switch fuel tanks which caused a crash. Human factors is a huge part of training - so for this to be effective it needs to be drilled into the pilot's checklist on engine failure. Also this is time taken away from finding an emergency landing field and trying to restart the primary engine.
I'd say an interesting comparison is the Cirrus SR20/22 which has a parachute for the plane. It gives you a great sense of security but that particular plane is the new "doctor killer" (a name given to the V-Tail Bonanza in the past).
Curious to see how this will be seen and used by industry.
Dumb question, could this combined with the power from the regular engine give you thrust greater than the weight of your plane and potentially allow vertical take off and landing (imagine the nose pointed up, And obviously you'd need special landing legs, etc)