Jgwright

I am delighted to say that the Arado has at last flown. On a glorious sunny day after getting all 6 engines started, Dave Wilde did a great job flying the maiden. The plane was clearly nose heavy, but not more than he could handle. We cut the flight short so we could be sure that we landed safely. As it was Dave ran out of up elevator on landing so it was not his usual perfect touchdown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nmhl...ature=youtu.be

also second video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAnsX...ature=youtu.be


Sorry I cannot post any photos but it does not seem possible to avoid server error 500, been that way for over a week. Also does not seem possible to post you tube video link. RCU clearly have problems at the moment

John

mick15

Hearty congrats John and Dave well done!

m

LGM Graphix

My Feedback: (22)

Only one word can describe....

.....Awesome!!!!

bluescoobydoo

good to see it fly at last john and every thing went well as expected, so what is next?

CJ2002

Stunning job John...many congrats! Dave did a super job too, as always.


Look fwd to seeing it at CJ !

Cheers,

Dick

Jgwright

Thanks for the kind remarks, it is nice to be part of a team effort, not forgetting my German friends.

The next plane is the Boulton Paul P111. Ted has been doing all the sanding filling and priming. It is now complete with its rivets and is ready for it yellow paint it looks great.

It is such a pain to squeeze it into my car I cannot promise when I will be persuaded to bring it out for the next airing.

John

Euan

John,
Well done to you and the rest of your team,will we see this at any of the UK shows?
hope so cheers Euan.

Andy Aldridge

Amazing John, I have seen the aeroplane and the expertise and workmanship are stunning.
So glad it has flown. Well done John and Dave.

jetster81

A big well done to you both, massive achievement, Dave can take his bicycle clips off now!

JP-1

John,

First class show, well done, like Andy said the workmanship is the best, great team effort

And with your own turbines too, like all your projects they are not for the feint hearted!!

It is ironic the test flight was from a former P51 Mustang base!!!!

Alistair.

Henke Torphammar

Congrats to pulling of the coolest project in a long time! Good luck with future flying!

Pat Barnes

Fantastic effort! Well done to everyone involved!

DAVID WILDE

Hi B,
Well after flying John's Horten for the first time which was a real heart stopping event the ARADO was a piece of cake albeit a little nose heavy hence the bumpy landing. I think John was more nervous than i was as i knew we had almost perfect flying conditions today and i knew in my own mind it would fly.
I have seen video of a simliar sized EDF fly perefectly so i knew as long as john had got the cg somewhere close it would fly.
We decided for the first flight not to retract the undercarriage so this did cause a bit of drag and i was using rudders to help it around the turns. It now has to do an hours flying under LMA scruitineering before it can fly at public shows. So by next years Pampas jets we may have it there so we may meet up again.
Well there not many people who can write in their log book.

Test flew SIX engined ARADO 555 for John Wright today 27/5/2012.

Congragulations John and glad to be part of the team.
Dave Wilde

Geoff White

Congrats John and congrats to Dave on a succesfull maiden.

flycatch

My Feedback: (26)

Better nose heavy than tail heavy. I find it hard to believe that you never took the time to check the CG.

cowmags

I can't let that comment go unanswered. Where were they supposed to get those precise CG figures, from the ARF manual? You guys did a fantastic job getting such a difficult airframe in the air and back down safely. Congratulations and job well done.

flycatch

My Feedback: (26)

You watched the video and so did I. Did you read the information provided on who was involved in this project besides the pilot and builder. The flying wing was designed by someone or a firm called "Sonst". You don't design an airframe without knowing the forward and aft limits of the center of gravity. This flight could have led to a disaster and they would have no one to blame but themselves. From your reply it appears your one who has no glue how to calculate the CG without it provided by the manufacture. I did it for a living while manufacturing aerial targets for the military.

jetster81

I think you have no 'glue' what you are on about, It is customary to set up something like this with a slightly forward c of g as an insurance,You can always move it back but not always the other way around!, it was within the limits as you can see as it flew quite well and clearly not a guess at it. Both John and Dave are highly experienced modellers and would between them not leave something like this to chance.

flycatch

My Feedback: (26)

Another one who does not read. The pilot stated he ran out of elevator upon landing. This tells me and others that the forward CG limit was exceeded. As far as your statement it flew quite well. This is nothing but speculation on your part because you were not there to note any trim inputs the pilot may have inputed. It is normal practice to have an assistant make any trim inputs on the transmitter while the pilot remains on the sticks during a test flight. I don't believe this was done and the pilot was flying the sticks. Watch the landing if you don't believe me. Before you jumps to the defense of your friend get your facts straight.

Turbotronic

Well I have designed more than 100 planes in the last 40 years or so. I have learned that CG calculations are almost never spot on. A few years ago I doubted myself on a very high cost UAV with a high delta planform. I had 2 Phd's calculate CG for me. They both came to the same position. So I followed their advice and changed the CG from where I eayballed it. Well the result was almost no pitch control and 50% up staberon to fly level. Clearly both were wrong. Add to that a highly swept flying wing with low reynolds nr airfoil and you are in unchartered territory.
So your argument is void of real knowledge, sorry. Also you were not there either.
The final CG is determined by the pilot after the first flight. We are not dealing with full size aircraft here so you cannot use it with certainty.
Well done John. You are a real modeller building real masterpieces.
Looking forward to seeing some video.
Andre

Jgwright

Just to get matters straight, the C of G was based on a small tester flying model in Germany that was powered by a prop at the rear. I did very careful checks of the the CG position and as is usual on an untested airframe made the C of G slightly ahead of the established position. In the event the large model behaved slightly differently to the small one but not enough to be a real problem.

Dave has flown plenty of my models, many of which were original models and not flown before. Establishing C of G position on a new un-flown design is not a science, it is part checking by a calculator and part by small scale models. Even so you never know the exact position till the model has flown.

On a large model like this that is 3.35m wingspan and heavy too, accurately measuring C of G is not as easy as it sounds. I made thin plates to sandwich between the centre section and outer wing panels that I could lift up using pre drilled holes to suspend it from. In order to get the C of G to the supposed position I had to add 1.3 Kg of lead in the nose. I shall be relieved to remove some of it now.

Clearly some who have commented have not flown much before. Dave makes all trim adjustments himself while flying. In this case we checked after landing and were using full up trim to get level flight. The flight controls use elevons on the outer surfaces. There are 2 servos per surface. In the centre are flaps that are intended for counteracting trim change when the flaps are lowered. I arranged this centre flap to link with the elevon elevator when one switch was set to allow extra elevator surface for take-off. In the event we needed it throughout the flight. You can see this if you look carefully at the video.

John

David Gladwin

Wonderful achievement, John, warmest congratulations. looking forward to seeing it soon.

Regards,

David.

Robrow

Well done John and Dave, tremendous achievement, looking forward to seeing it in the flesh at some point this year.

Rob.

Ali

My Feedback: (5)

Well done John and Dave. Thats looks superb in the air.

Regards Al

Mark H

well done dave and john , Auto start next. ;-)