The VanDersarl Blériot: a 1911 airplane homebuilt by teenage brothers (2017)
historynet.com35 points by ForHackernews 7 hours ago
35 points by ForHackernews 7 hours ago
It was also two teenagers who, some 50 years earlier, came up with the idea of flying machines and the aerodynamics of wings in the first place:
The brothers Otto and Gustav Lilienthal were watching the storks take flight in the meadows of Mecklenburg in the 1850s. And it made them think, “We could do that, too, if we only had wings like that”.
Of course, Otto died in a crash of one of his motorless flying machines in 1891, I believe. But the Wright brothers saw the eulogy in the paper… and the rest is history.
George Cayley would beg to differ: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cayley
(or Leonardo da Vinci, for that matter)
Here is one in flight, very recently.
Very, very cool. Two things I noticed:
- This is a real rotary engine, where the pistons and cylinders rotate about the crankshaft, and are attached to the propeller
- The pilot had to keep a constant down angle on the elevator to keep it flying level; was the C.G. right?
What an absolutely amazing sight. That turn at 2:30, it's incredible how small the turning radius is, it's going that slow. I could watch that plane soar all day. Thank you for posting this video.
Yes, the turning radius is quite something. It appears that the entire vertical stabilizer is a control surface.
Re. your other comment about the cardboard plane: Amazing. When I was 9 or so, my friends and me made an 'airplane' in the attic of the house where we lived. We flew it all over the world looking for treasure ;) It's a good thing we didn't see this video or for sure I wouldn't be writing this. That is absolutely amazing what that guy is doing there and to actually attempt to fly is bravery beyond the call of duty. I really hope he succeeds.
Ah cool! I though it might not fit here and did not want to appear to be spamming on this post, so I deleted the comment.
Here is the video in question for anyone curious:
If that's not in the spirit of HN I don't know what would qualify. He's a little bit mad though :) I'm already antsy with a naked 7" spinning near me and he seems to have four 18" within touching distance.
I'm surprised the rear end of the fuselage was an open skeleton instead of being covered like the wings and tail. Wouldn't that significantly interfere with the airflow?
It does, but this airplane is so light that it would also upset the balance, even a little weight that far back has a huge effect on where the center of mass is.
"The lasting memory is not of flight in the modern sense of acceleration, power and performance. It is of how impossibly slow this aeroplane flies, and how absolutely improbable it is that such a machine can actually levitate above the ground."
https://speedreaders.info/32045-the-vandersarl-bleriot-a-cen...
Reminded me of this book: https://archive.org/details/borednothingtodo0000spie
And the magnificent movie "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" (or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes)
Released 1965
> Set in 1910, the film follows a fictitious air race from London to Paris
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Those_Magnificent_Men_in_Their...
Trailer: https://youtu.be/LPlRxXmQ8xM
The Shuttleworth Collection in England has some of the aircraft from that film in flying condition.
They also have a working Blériot XI — the world’s oldest flying aircraft:
https://www.shuttleworth.org/discover/collection/aircraft/bl...
If the weather is good they fly these for the public every summer. It is a wonderful show.
This was one of my favorite movies growing up. It made me want to get into aerospace stuff. This and star wars.
I'm trying to imagine what a bunch of teenagers could do today to get a similar sense of accomplishment. Note that they weren't even doing particularly well at grade school.
My greatgrandmother (born in 1891) left grade school in 6th grade for similar reasons. The real reason she was taken out was "money". (This was rural Indiana about 1903.) She finished her own education through what you might call a master's program by studying her brothers' texts. It was an unwise person who assume her lack of formal education meant anything about her intelligence or informal education.
I have a typing diploma and a driving license so I can relate, though I was born a little bit later.
Well it was far removed from today, but our high school had been built experimentally on runways in the nearby Everglades after the air base had been decommissioned following the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The pavement was vast in all directions and educational buildings had been placed on or alongside it, all parking was on existing tarmac.
Anyway, in Mechanical Engineering our senior project was a gyrocopter.
It was pretty much like somebody had a broken one just sitting around doing nothing, a student brought it in like it was "show & tell" and the decision was made to launch. It didn't come in at the beginning of the year.
I did graduate a bit early and never did get to see much of the progress.
That's fascinating. If the high school my sons go to would decide on letting students build an aircraft with the intention of flying it I would be donating tools, but the rest of the parents here would have the school management in court.
Are there any pictures of this project in your possession?
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It is so unfortunate that flying has such a credentialist mafia holding it back from more widespread use. Imagine if motorcycles had even half the regulations to ride as single seater aircraft do. Such a ridiculous state of affairs.
I don't know about other places but it doesn't look that hard and complicated to get a license to fly a sub 300kg aircraft in Europe. I believe we still call them ULM.
It is even easier to fly a powered paraglider.
You don’t think there are any noteworthy differences between a motorcycle and an aircraft in the sort of damage it can do and where?
Depends on the aircraft, current ultralights that you don't need to drop $100,000 to get licensed for can only weigh 250 lbs, while motorcycles don't really have a limit and can weight over 1,000 lbs, approaching the weight of a Cessna 152. And when you account for crash scenarios, yeah the rider is at risk in both, but the motorcycle is far more likely to be in and around other people and vehicles during a crash, while a plane is 99% of the time over clear land and even an emergency landing is unlikely to put other people at risk.
It ain't a perfect comparison, both have problems, but it is far easier to get a license to drive a truck hauling 20+ tons than to get a license to fly a 500 pound plane, and motorcycle licenses is basically a signature and a couple bucks away.
A 200kg Kawasaki H2R can go close to 400kph on a two lane road. It is not going to cause any less damage than a single seater falling out of the sky somewhere randomly.
(I'm a PP-ASEL, earned in and around SF Bay Area air spaces almost three decades ago)
First, people are more likely to crash during takeoffs and landings, not in the middle of a flight. Second, it's also not just about the damage caused to others, and even if you crash in the middle of nowhere quite a few people will be busy dealing with it - in that case, remoteness is not a good thing but actually more costly. They won't just leave you and the airplane lying at the crash site until nature reclaims it all.
Furthermore, it is not just the flying itself. If that is what you wanted, the crazy early times of flight would have been for you, when everybody could just do whatever they wanted, wherever they wanted. Much of the learning for the license is the rules and procedures. Air space if very busy! I have small class D airports where there is so much traffic sometimes that I can hardly get a word in to announce myself. This will have the potential for stress and errors long after you got used to the flying itself.
I can't even begin the shortcuts someone's thinking has to take to think flying and driving should be treated the same.
Some people thought there weren't. They are not here to tell their tale anymore.