Hello everyone,
I'm a long time lurker and this is my first post. I am interested in aircraft construction since several years, and have read the low AR/Facetmobile/cheap aircrafts are simply impossible/... threads many times and became interested by the low-AR configuration.
Then I discovered the NASA lifting bodies and ,of course, after some research, a question came to my mind:
Would it be possible to build a propeller-driven version of the M2 F1?
And by 'propeller-driven version', I mean: a 'safe and flyable version' of course.
This may sound a little bit crazy, but this configuration offer some advantages: (very) simple construction, garage-storable, high internal volume, low part count, high crashworthiness.
On the other side, this configuration offers poor L/D ratio, poor visibility due to nose-high attitude in flight and some unusual flight characteristics.
To give you an idea of the M2 F1 flight characteristics, I let you read the NASA report on the subject:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/pdf/87714main_H-383.pdf
From this report, we learn that the M2 F1:
-had his CG located at 55% of the total length
-had a high dihedral effect, thus:
-was sluggish in roll
-was gust sensitive
-was prone to dutch-roll and adverse yaw
If the goal is to produce a simple, safe enough ultralight only designed for short, 'fun' flights, it can be a good solution. Even more if some of the above behaviors could be 'smoothed' to produce a more standard-handling machine.
Some questions remains however:
-How would the propeller affect the aircraft behavior in flight?
-How to calculate the take-off and cruise speed? How to even calculate the lift coefficient/force?
-How modifying the shape in order to decrease the dihedral effect would affect the flight characteristics?
I know that strange design are not popular and that lifting bodies (and other 'oddities' such as flying wings) are not going to replace standard airplanes and it's not the goal of this 'study', I think that it can be interesting to explore this area simply out of curiosity.
What do you think? I am interested in your opinion.
I'm a long time lurker and this is my first post. I am interested in aircraft construction since several years, and have read the low AR/Facetmobile/cheap aircrafts are simply impossible/... threads many times and became interested by the low-AR configuration.
Then I discovered the NASA lifting bodies and ,of course, after some research, a question came to my mind:
Would it be possible to build a propeller-driven version of the M2 F1?
And by 'propeller-driven version', I mean: a 'safe and flyable version' of course.
This may sound a little bit crazy, but this configuration offer some advantages: (very) simple construction, garage-storable, high internal volume, low part count, high crashworthiness.
On the other side, this configuration offers poor L/D ratio, poor visibility due to nose-high attitude in flight and some unusual flight characteristics.
To give you an idea of the M2 F1 flight characteristics, I let you read the NASA report on the subject:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/pdf/87714main_H-383.pdf
From this report, we learn that the M2 F1:
-had his CG located at 55% of the total length
-had a high dihedral effect, thus:
-was sluggish in roll
-was gust sensitive
-was prone to dutch-roll and adverse yaw
If the goal is to produce a simple, safe enough ultralight only designed for short, 'fun' flights, it can be a good solution. Even more if some of the above behaviors could be 'smoothed' to produce a more standard-handling machine.
Some questions remains however:
-How would the propeller affect the aircraft behavior in flight?
-How to calculate the take-off and cruise speed? How to even calculate the lift coefficient/force?
-How modifying the shape in order to decrease the dihedral effect would affect the flight characteristics?
I know that strange design are not popular and that lifting bodies (and other 'oddities' such as flying wings) are not going to replace standard airplanes and it's not the goal of this 'study', I think that it can be interesting to explore this area simply out of curiosity.
What do you think? I am interested in your opinion.
