HOW AIRPLANES FLY ?

What makes an airplane get off the ground and stay in the air? Easy to understand, the film combines animation and live sequences to explain everything about basic aerodynamics. Forces of lift, weight, thrust and drag are shown in relation to flight.

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YVES Fusionman ROSSY, the FIRST Aviation History PIONEER of the 21st CENTURY

Yves Fusion Man Rossy smiling portrait

A few days after he succeeded in crossing the Channel, I thought it was time to show who and what gave Yves Rossy the incentive to perform such breathtaking feats. Let’s have a look at this hero’s career.

When he was a child, he said « When I am older, I will be pilots » – with an S ! This became his motto from the day he got unable to go down from a tree by himself. The child has now become « Fusionman ». In order to understand what motivated this pilot, watch and listen to Yves Rossy’s comments (in French) on the video below:

As he explained, Yves Rossy has always admired the first pioneers. Every attempt used to end by death or breakthrough. Yves Rossy has now become « Fusionman », the first man flushed in a jet-engine-propelled wing, flying as if he were Icarus.

Yves Rossy was born on the 27th of August 1959 in Neufchatel – Switzerland. Both gazing skywards, and having his feet firmly planted on the ground, he was taught technical education and passed a mechanics baccalauréat. Natural-born sportsman, he has practised everything that glides, slides, or flies – surfing, waterskiing, wakeboarding, skysurfing, parachuting, aerobatics, motorcycling, rafting, hang-gliding, etc. Flying with a jet-powered wing is the crowning of a 30-year career and numerous stunts, feats, and premieres.

FIGHTER PILOT

Certainly one of the most intense periods in his career. Yves Rossy flew the supersonic Mirage III for 15 years. During this period, he flew some historical aircraft such as the Hunter or the Venom, one of the first English jet-engine fighters. He got the idea of going round Switzerland throughout several activities within a day. He carried out this feat on the 3rd of July 1991. During his trip, he flew a DC-9, went motorcycling, skiing, snowboarding, mountaineering, paragliding, mountain-biking, bungee-jumping, he flew a helicopter, went skydiving, rafting, hydrospeeding, canoeing, drove a sportscar, went hang-gliding, horse-riding, barefooting, waterskiing, wakeboarding, and finally speedboating – that’s enough… 25 vehicles were used this day along 1,000 km for 15 hours and a half! Yves Rossy is a Swiss Air Force retiree, and keeps flying the two-seater Hunter belonging to the association Amici del Hunter. He works as a captain at Swiss Airlines, and his spare-time is dedicated to his passion. He has been supported since February 2007 by Jean-Claude BIVER, HUBLOT watches’ CEO.

HE FANCIES DOING WHAT NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE

Yves Rossy is used to venturing off the beaten tracks. He devotes all his hobbies to flight in all its forms. He multiplies the tests on contrivances that change with the passing experiments. An inflatable wing made him get over the 12-kilometer distance between the two shores of Lake Geneva. Many stunts were reported such as hang-gliding over the huge Geneva spray to surf on top of it, then land on the lake to grab a waterskiing handle, and get to the shore without getting wet! Another feat – he skydived on a disk over the Matterhorn. As Yves Rossy whished to get beyond his feats and dreams, he wanted to fly with as little instrumentation as possible – like a bird with the ability to move and steer into space, he got the idea of adding scale model jet engines under a wing.

JET-POWERED WING

The first attempt occurred in March, 2003. The German Jet-Cat company supplied the engines which were added under an inflatable wing, but this trial was a failure for lacking of rigidity. He developed a rigid spreadable carbon wing built-up at ACT Composites’ in 2004. It made an indifferent start. He spun and had to drop his wing at Al-Ain airshow. The wing parachute tore, and the device was damaged. From that time, the pilot worked hard to improve the spreading of the wing and aerodynamics at the wing tips in order to provide more stability. He achieved two flights with a two-jet-engine-propelled wing in 2005. He had a narrow shave a month later: an uncontrollable sway led him to drop his wing which crashed. After a long year and two extra jet engines added, the wing became more secure. As a matter of fact, the 5’40 » over Bex – Switzerland – came up as an awaken dream for this pioneer. Since then, Yves Rossy has relentlessly been training to optimize his wing. Yves was compelled again to drop his prototype wing while in a new test flight in April 2007. The wing was seriously damaged and took a few months to be repaired. In the aftermath of this failure, Yves Rossy decided to build up a new, more reliable, higher-performance wing. Since early 2008, his wings have become more and more sophisticated.

Finally, Yves « Fusionman » « Rocketman » « Jetman » Rossy found his place in Aviation History on the 26th of September 2008, having joined Calais – France – to Dover – England. Congratulations to Yves Rossy and thanks to MEDIA IMPACT and its staff which supplied me with materials and information to write a post about Yves Rossy.

Please visit their website at: http://www.jetman.com/

Pilot Yves Rossy flying his wing

 

WING SPECIFICATION SHEET

  • Wingspan: 2.50 m.
  • Central part span: 1.80 m.
  • Length of a spreadable part: 35 cm.
  • Spreading device: by gas-spring completed in half a second.
  • Weight with fuel and smoke-emission device: 55 kg.
  • Dry weight: 30 kg.
  • 4 self-started Jet-Cat P200 jet-engines (thrust: 22 kg each) – stabilized in slow-running in 25 seconds.
  • Fuel: mixed with kerosene and 5% turbine oil for lubrication
  • Rating speed: 200 km/h
  • Climb-out speed: 180 km/h (330 m/min)
  • Sink rate: 300 km/h
  • Flight endurance: 10 minutes
  • Parachute: « Parachutes de France – Legend R »
  • Canopy: PD Spectra 230
  • Harness: dropped with an automatic engine-shut-off system and, an automatic parachute opening system for proper recovery.
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Effective TECHNICAL ENGLISH websites

Aviation English training Software Bewise2I must have been pretty busy last months for I’ve just realized that I haven’t added the Philip SHAWCROSS’s sites so far !!! This must be corrected right now: Mister SHAWCROSS is the author and founder of « English for aircraft ».

English for aircraft book cover

His two books make up undoubtedly the cleverest way of teaching technical English, especially for ESOL students. His renowned software « Docwise » is a must for the engineers and mechanics desiring to be trained as far as technical English and aeronautics are concerned. Click on the logo on your left handside to visit « Bwise2 », his website dedicated to aviation English language training for mechanics and pilots. Bwise2 can provide everything you need to learn technical English within the scope of aeronautics.

Bwise2 is not his only asset. Philip SHAWCROSS is the president of the International Civil Aviation English Association – ICAEA – a non profit-making association created under the 1901 French law.

English for aircraft logo

ICAEA’s aims:

To bring together people and organizations concerned by or interested in the use of English in the aviation and aeronautical world.

To promote the exchange of information as regards English, English training, standards, qualifications, translation, documents etc, between people working within aviation in different countries.

To centralise information useful to the Airlines, Authorities, Air Traffic Services, manufacturers, pilots, engineers, universities, research institutes, training centers and teachers.

To enhance the circulation of this information through a web site, a list serve, seminars and the publication of their proceedings.

Finally, to generate concern about the quality of English in the aviation world. Please click on the logo hereafter to visit the ICAEA website:

ICAEA logo

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NASA OBLIQUE WING CONCEPT

NASA Dryden flight

A program conducted between 1979 and 1982 at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., successfully demonstrated an aircraft wing that could be pivoted obliquely from zero to 60 degrees during flight. The unique wing was demonstrated on a small, subsonic jet-powered research aircraft called the AD-1 (Ames Dryden -1). The aircraft was flown 79 times during the research program, which evaluated the basic pivot-wing concept and gathered information on handling qualities and aerodynamics at various speeds and degrees of pivot.

The oblique wing concept originated with Robert T. Jones, an aeronautical

engineer at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

Analytical and wind tunnel studies Jones initiated at Ames indicated that a transport-size oblique-wing aircraft, flying at speeds up to Mach 1.4 (1.4 times the speed of sound), would have substantially better aerodynamic performance than aircraft with more conventional wings. At high speeds, both subsonic and supersonic, the wing would be pivoted at up to 60 degrees to the aircraft’s fuselage for better high-speed performance. The studies showed these angles would decrease aerodynamic drag, permitting increased speed and longer range with the same fuel expenditure. At lower speeds, during takeoffs and landings, the wing would be perpendicular to the fuselage like a conventional wing to provide maximum lift and control qualities. As the aircraft gained speed, the wing would be pivoted to increase the oblique angle, thereby reducing the drag and decreasing fuel consumption. The wing could only be swept in one direction, with the right wingtip moving forward.

The AD-1 aircraft was delivered to Dryden in February 1979. The Ames Industrial Co., Bohemia, N.Y., constructed it, under a $240,000 fixed-price contract. NASA specified the overall vehicle design using a geometric configuration studied by the Boeing Commercial Airplane Company, Seattle, Wash. The Rutan Aircraft Factory, Mojave, Calif., provided the detailed design and load analysis for the intentionally low-speed, low-cost airplane. The low speed and cost of course limited the complexity of the vehicle and the scope of its technical objectives.

NASA AD-1 X-plane

Piloting the aircraft on its first flight Dec. 21, 1979, was NASA research pilot Thomas C. McMurtry, who was also the pilot on the final flight Aug. 7, 1982. Powered by two small turbojet engines, each producing 220 pounds of static thrust at sea level, the aircraft was limited for reasons of safety to a speed of about 170 mph. The AD-1 was 38.8 feet in length and had a wingspan of 32.3 feet unswept. It was constructed of plastic reinforced with fiberglass, in a sandwich with the skin separated by a rigid foam core. It had a gross weight of 2,145 pounds, and an empty weight of 1,450 pounds. A fixed tricycle landing gear, mounted close to the fuselage to lessen aerodynamic drag, gave the aircraft a very « squatty » appearance on the ground. It was only 6.75 feet high. The wing was pivoted by an electrically driven gear mechanism located inside the fuselage, just forward of the engines.

Read full article on the NASA (www.nasa.gov) website: NASA Dryden Past Projects: AD-1 Oblique Wing – updated August 12, 2009

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