Posted by Jerry on February 16th, 2005 — Posted in History, Journal, Technology
Okay it’s old news – but it was news to me that in August 2003 a small team managed to fly a model plane across the Atlantic Ocean from Newfoundland to Ireland! Called the TAM-5 (Trans-atlantic Model number five) this tiny plane had a 1.83metre (six foot) wingspan, weighed 5kg (half of which was fuel) and was powered by a 10cc engine running on camping stove fuel. Guidance was by GPS connected to flight servos and radio control for takeoff and landing. The flight lasted 38 hours 52 minutes (they had calculated the fuel to last 36 hours – but it ran lean). Reading the account of the flight, I was on the edge of my seat as it became clear how tenuous this whole project had been. The plane flew a total distance of 3030km (1888 miles).
An amazing achievement for designer Maynard Hill
cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on December 19th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Technology
We bought a Canon powershot A-75 digital camera to take with us to China and I thought I’d see how this one handled a moon shot tonight from my back yard in Canberra 🙂
Here’s the result, using manual setting and exposure of 1/250th sec the result sharpened once and cropped in photoshop and compressed in Imageready for the web:
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on October 31st, 2004 — Posted in History, Journal, Technology
We will of course never know if Leonardo ever truly flight-tested his glider designs, but there have been a couple of recent attempts to see how sound the design was. A 1980s reconstruction apparently did fly but has been criticised for its use of modern materials such as nylon sail cloth and aluminium, bringing the weight down by a factor of eight.
In 2002, however, the BBC commissioned another reconstruction – this time using materials faithful to Leonardo’s design – bamboo for the framework and sealed cotton for the sail. While there were stability problems, the addition of a tailplane – consistent with Leonardo’s other work on flight – provided a workable solution.
And this one managed several stable flights, including one as long as 18 seconds with considerable promise for longer flights under better conditions…
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on October 17th, 2004 — Posted in History, Journal, Steam, Technology
Having just encountered the wonderful steam models page of Forest Classics in the UK I was amazed at the range of steam models now available. It used to be mamod and more mamod, but little else – now it seems there are many manufacturers of high quality kits and assembled live steam models – from stationary beam engines like this one from Sussex Steam Beam & Mill Engine Kits
to full-on radio controlled live steam cars, like this model 1907 stanley steamer from the MiniSteam company…
After seeing a mate run his radio controlled petrol driven model race car up and down our street, I thought nah, I prefer steam!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on September 27th, 2004 — Posted in DIY, Technology, Woodwork
A while ago I made a primitive electric motor using instructions from an old school science book – My excuse was that I wanted my then pre-teen daughter to see how they worked, but really it was as much for my own satisfaction and fun 😉
The one I made used a large bolt (with corresponding nut and washers at each end for balance) which was inserted transversely through a pre-drilled hole in a cylinder of wood. The axis of the cylinder had a couple of nails inserted as axles – and the rotor assembly was supported on thick wire supports. I wound a fairly long length of insulated wire around the bolt and set up two electromagnets made the same way and lined up with the head and nut of the bolt. I used a couple of pieces of tin can tacked to the wooden shaft as contacts for the brushes (which were themselves made from the springy tin cut from a tin can and sanded to make a good contact surface. There were not that many windings so it took four of the big square ‘dolphin torch’ batteries to make it go – but it worked – to the amazement of my neighbour 🙂
A slightly similar (and simpler) one can be found at this site – their motor looks like this:
and they give instructions for making it.
Today, doing a bit of surfing I came across a web site with images of a wide range of early electric motors and their precursors – some fascinating devices! I loved the magnetic beam engine…
Enjoy!
Cheers
Jerry
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