What is air racing ?

[First time Juke]

Re: What is air racing ?

This is little problematic;

If I want to keep Tweedy really small then it would be 2 x 17 hp 2 cylinder 2-stroke boxers with direct drive and two sparkplugs in each cyl to keep it safe. When its empty weight is less than 70 kilos ( yes Cri Cri proto was 63 kilos ) it needs less paper work and it can be flown with minimum lisence.

If it becomes a real AC with 2 wankels or 4-strokes or 30 hp 2-strokes it would to be over 70 kilos empty weight and certifying it will cost 2-3 million USD here. It needs a twin engine pilot certification/lisence to fly it. Otherwise it stays an experimental.

The aim in the first place is to keep it small...

But then if it is a single engine AC then also one Aixro is doable with less fuss with the local FAA officials.

[Bob]

Re: What is air racing ?

Juke,
you can easily modify a two stroke single cylinder to spin either way.

[First time Juke]

Re: What is air racing ?

Juke,
you can easily modify a two stroke single cylinder to spin either way.

Excellent news Bob !

Here is extra-lite Tweedy with better 12 degree forward down visibility ! Other mods are tail positioned higher and lenght 1 inch added.

This type of fuse is lighter when glassed area is smaller.

This has also windscreen warm air ( heating ) vents from the engine room.

[gp70442]

Re: What is air racing ?

THIS

http://www.aafo.com/hangartalk/attachment.php?attachmentid=9881

is air racing!
GP

[First time Juke]

Re: What is air racing ?

Wardrobe racers... After your ref to storage,

JRP... Juke Race Planes

AM... Air Midgets or Minis

AFR... Affordable Race Planes

Pocket Racers...

I do like the TB as well, just throwing out some more.

Since I am not an english speaking person by origins I may have overdone a bit this name for this little plane.

Someone told me that both words Tweedy and Byrd actually mean something else than the yellow little bird in the cartoons.

A more air racing oriented name is being searched for Tweedy now.

How about just T-Bird...or is only for Thunder Birds ?

[Race#21]

Re: What is air racing ?

Tweety Bird (also known as Tweety Pie or simply Tweety) is an Academy Award-winning fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated cartoons. Tweety's popularity, like that of The Tasmanian Devil, actually grew in the years following the dissolution of the Looney Tunes cartoons. Today Tweety is considered, along with Taz and Bugs Bunny, among the most popular of the Looney Tunes characters, especially (because of his "cute" appearance and personality) among girls and young women. The name "Tweety" is a play on words, as it originally meant "Sweetie", along with "tweet" being a typical English expression imitating the sounds of birds. FYI

[First time Juke]

Re: What is air racing ?

Tweety Bird (also known as Tweety Pie or simply Tweety) is an Academy Award-winning fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated cartoons. Tweety's popularity, like that of The Tasmanian Devil, actually grew in the years following the dissolution of the Looney Tunes cartoons. Today Tweety is considered, along with Taz and Bugs Bunny, among the most popular of the Looney Tunes characters, especially (because of his "cute" appearance and personality) among girls and young women. The name "Tweety" is a play on words, as it originally meant "Sweetie", along with "tweet" being a typical English expression imitating the sounds of birds. FYI

Right..I love that cartoon caracter..Tweety Bird...since that is copyrighted material I went for Tweedy Byrd..which I know now is in the same class as the Mike Myers caracter Ivana Humpalot and Alotta Fagina...this was unintented.

How about Tweedy-Bird..is that ok with no known dual meaning. Pushy Galore was also a racer right ( ...after James Bond movie caracter Pussy Galore ) ?

[Leo]

Re: What is air racing ?

I dunno. I like the name.

[Race#21]

Re: What is air racing ?

Hi Juke;
I believe it is in the public domain now. Critical Mass had the Taz Man. You can't make enough money out of this to justify anyone comming after you for naming your plane "Tweety Bird". I think it's perfect.
T.

[GeeBeeZ1931]

Re: What is air racing ?

I am not 100% happy with this sentence.

I rephrase it.

We have outstanding gliderdesigns like Kajava, Vasama, Utu and Pik-20 + motorplanes Keltiäinen and it's never version Mini-Sytky and few ampfibians + 2-3 glider towplane designs ( + miscallaneous experimentals and military trainers and few fighters ) and one sports plane Viri, but none of them were revolutionally new like Tweedy-Byrd...which also is just a mix of Cri Cri, Thunderbird II and my R/C design Phoenix from 1990...like someone said nothing new...but the design itself and its landing-gear system.



PS: Here are all ( most ? ) finnish AC designs so far.

http://www.windcraft.fi/pik27/faq/suomalaiset.html

I hope nobody managed to inhale a pea into his/her breathing organs of my earlier comment.


Here is Keltiäinen that was a record setter:

Juke, I never realized what a cool guy you were until this posting/thread.

I just about choked from laughing on that last sentence about the pea! Love your english!

I think your idea and design is pretty cool and if it could be done for $5000 and with the performance you are shooting for I'd love to have one myself.
My best for your success and a big raspberry for the naysayers!
Bill Kohler

[First time Juke]

Re: What is air racing ?

Juke, I never realized what a cool guy you were until this posting/thread.

I just about choked from laughing on that last sentence about the pea! Love your english!

I think your idea and design is pretty cool and if it could be done for $5000 and with the performance you are shooting for I'd love to have one myself.
My best for your success and a big raspberry for the naysayers!
Bill Kohler

Thanks for the compliments Bill !

I just printed the sideview in 1/3.5 scale and it looks enermous because of the cockpit bulge, but very dynamic yet.

The 130 000 views and 100 pages of comments in my recent topic of the kite in Finland had some very harsh critics.

Very few people seems to able to appreciate the fact that this kite is designed to fly at very low cost ( both building and maintenance ). Of course this leaves a lot of features absent.

One feature that bugged me recently was the taxiing feature with tricycle as this has..will it be stable in hard backwind...I honestly dunno, but I'd like to know how many hang glider pilots keep their glider backwards towards the wind ? At least I know that as the props are turning the controls are effective and thus pulling the stick will cause the tail to bite harder the asfalt ( grass ) while taxiing. But I wouldn't be surprised if someone brakes a prop tip while taxiing this in a hard wind someday.

Possibly to save fuel one wants to push the Tweedy like they push a wheelbarrow ....until at the end of the runway against a headwind...or at the hangar ( this would possibly enable to make the mainwheel also nonturning, which would again save weight and costs for the builder ).

One of the funniest comments were the demands for the pressurisation and supercharger at high altitudes...what kinda ultralite would that be ?

[Leo]

Re: What is air racing ?

Sailplanes only have bicycle gear. Your talking a sport plane here anyway, not a cross country family hauler. So what if you give up a little ground handling convenience?
I would think that if a landing tailwind component on a small sportplane is an issue with someone they may have bigger problems with their flying...

[First time Juke]

Re: What is air racing ?

Sailplanes only have bicycle gear. Your talking a sport plane here anyway, not a cross country family hauler. So what if you give up a little ground handling convenience?
I would think that if a landing tailwind component on a small sportplane is an issue with someone they may have bigger problems with their flying...

Right and they don't fully understand the Tweedy aspect....the main wheel is more forward ( from the CG ) than in a regular taildagger to increase the stability. The tail will be lifted at certain speed by this targeted ground effect which is enhanced by the propwash from both props/engines.

Also in tailwind the wind actually presses the plane harder into surface than in the opposite case..only the overspeed turn at taxiing in unfavourable wind can tilt Tweedy slightly easier than a regular tractor layout configuration.

Another feature is that also the pilots' body "language" can be used like in a bike riding to enhange the turn since the plane is so small and light and cockpit moderatly roomy due to lifting body aspect. Also the CG is very low and rudders won't create moment that could turn the plane at taxiing run due to wind.

Darn this is a good plane !

Every inch of it ( 1/3.5 scale views ) tells me it wants to get airborne soon....

[DPKII]

Re: What is air racing ?

"Right and they don't fully understand the Tweedy aspect....the main wheel is more forward ( from the CG ) than in a regular taildagger to increase the stability."


Putting the main wheel forward (increased moment or wheel base) will increase stability while taxiing but will cause problems on landing.

Placing the main gear far ahead of the cg will cause the nose to pitch up when the main wheel contacts the ground (Bounce). This will lead to PIO or "crow hopping". Picture a trycylce gear aircraft landing by hitting the nose wheel first. Not a good thing. Tailwheel aircraft have the main wheels placed at different locations depending on the design of the aircraft but all place the gear only slightly ahead of the cg. Tricycle geared aircraft have the main gear slightly behind the cg.

Tweedy could also be considered a tricylce geared aircraft with the main wheels far aft of the cg.

Landings will be touchy.


David

[First time Juke]

Tweedy looks huge as 1/3.5 scale model...

"Right and they don't fully understand the Tweedy aspect....the main wheel is more forward ( from the CG ) than in a regular taildagger to increase the stability."


Putting the main wheel forward (increased moment or wheel base) will increase stability while taxiing but will cause problems on landing.

Placing the main gear far ahead of the cg will cause the nose to pitch up when the main wheel contacts the ground (Bounce). This will lead to PIO or "crow hopping". Picture a trycylce gear aircraft landing by hitting the nose wheel first. Not a good thing. Tailwheel aircraft have the main wheels placed at different locations depending on the design of the aircraft but all place the gear only slightly ahead of the cg. Tricycle geared aircraft have the main gear slightly behind the cg.

Tweedy could also be considered a tricylce geared aircraft with the main wheels far aft of the cg.

Landings will be touchy.


David

David,

I hope you understand that this really is a taildagger with unique features....the rear wheels are so much higher than the mainwheel that this bouncing effect hardly will happen, but maybe..if not taken care the rough landing on the nose wheel can damage the tail structure, but this is aimed to be eliminated by exceptionally good absorbers in the tail wheels ( as well as mainwheel ) and rugged structure....
At any rate...needs attention and will interesting to see how it behaves..maybe that front wheel is only 2-3 % more forward than in a regular tractor lay-out type..and not to mention the forward sweep ability to fly at high AoA without stalling and not tipstalling in the first place...also the possibility to land the tailwheel touching first has been discussed..this lead to idea of the thrustvectoring of the engines ( nacelles ). Riding it like Evel the Knievel nose up long distances....

What is mindbugging at the moment is how huge the models body is proportion to the nacelles and tail..it is like gigantic airship / zeppelin..I may have to make it smaller and recheck if the real intented plane could be actually smaller too....I have increased the size in 4 months period about 20-25% due to comments regarding visibility from cockpit and size of the cockpit....even after had already measured that everything fits and visibility is ok....it is me I am 6 ft 3 in and when using a helmet I need a lot of room...but Tweedy may be slightly too big now.

I tought I could make a 1/3 scale model with 2 x .30 four strokes...and now seems that even 1/3.5 scale model is too big..maybe 1/3.8 looks better. One other curious thing occurred too...I dunno but the mirror image does not look as hot to me as this left to right "moving" image...this is why I need a good model...maybe a 1/5 size would fly and would be easier and faster to build...we'll see.

I am disappointed also by the fact that I have to be the chief engineer and aerodynamist since no one has volunteered ( ok one or two nonexperienced students/beginners have, but doesn't have time to calculate ) to help nor to do any calculations. I have to stydy aerodynamics too and stress the model ( proto ) in order to collect info.

Also I have a curious feeling this is not a Tweedy Bird, but a Mermaid of the ancient stories....

rgds,

Juke