Check this out: A group of aerospace engineers who just happen to be friends has achieved
its goal of flying a tiny model airplane across the Atlantic Ocean from
Newfoundland to Ireland. Other unmanned aircraft have made the crossing,
but this one is small enough to qualify as a real "model" airplane and is
eligible to claim world records in its category. Maynard Hill of Silver
Spring, Maryland, said on his Web site http://tam.plannet21.com

JG

Thats pretty sweet.

neat!

I wasn't able to find any specs on it. Perhaps you know.

How big is it?
What was it using for horsepower?
How did they keep the engine running that long? Musta been one monster of a fuel tank!

some reason i dont believe it.... dont know why tho.. something seems fishy to me.. but i could be wrong. i would think that you would have seen something on the news about it...

eh?where do u store so much fuel for 30 over hours?

I don't have the article infront of me but here are some of the specs tha I recall. The plane weighed 11 pounds, wingspan 61 inches, OS 61 and 1 gallon of coleman lantern fuel.

THat's a rather high wing loading and all-up weight for a .61....

GraupnerFan: It's real and it's not the first. It has been in the press here in the states. Prior successful crossings were with slightly larger planes. I'd still consider the prior crossings "models" as the planes were smaller than my giant scale planes. However, it is still very impressive that a small model survived the trip.

I was just at the museum of flight in Seattle over the weekend... they had an airplane...Aerosonde (spelling?)... (9ft wingspan, modified Enya 140) that had flown from Newfoundland to an island off the coast of Scotland. As for the one that just flew from Newfoundland to Ireland(I think), there were a few threads about it on the RC Canada website. According to some of the posts, the story was on the TV on Sunday AM....

my bad... but the access i have to the hometown news being here is quite limited... like 3 am limited. but anyways. yeah... ummm woo hoo i guess. i suppose its quite a feat.. guess they didnt have anything else to do tho.............

Maynard Hill is an honorary member of our club
"Frederick Model Aircraft Club"

http://www.frederickmodelaircraftclub.org/

He gave a presentation of this goal at one of our club banquets last winter (I was not a member at the time). You can view pictures of this on the web site at the following URL:

http://www.frederickmodelaircraftclu...tos/dinner.htm


What an awesome accomplishment!

This National Geographic article has a few more details about the airplane/flight:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...satlantic.html

Maynard must be an honary member of half a dozen clubs He's also a member of my club. Several of the guys working on the project are also members of my club, so we had a lot of updates on the club mailing list as it was going on.

Part of the big deal about this particular crossing was that it was the first airpane to do it within the FAI's definition of a "model airplane", which sets the weight limit and such, so once the paperwork goest though, it will set a world record for distance for "model airplanes".

This is all fine and dandy but I wished he would publish some detalis like:
airplane model, engine, weight, electronics for navigation, etc.
I could not fine any in the website.

JG

I just hope this doesnt sound too stupid.........Did someone follow the plane by sea....how did they manage the range???
GPS????

i fink they used GPS to pilot the plane

Here is a link to an article written before the flight. I contains some nice (general) details about the fuel, engine, carb and modifications.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...satlantic.html

"Fuel consumption is a tricky issue. Hill must set the rate of fuel consumption by trickling a "whiskey shot," or two ounces of fuel an hour, through a small hole that can change size because of temperature or humidity. If the plane uses too much fuel per hour, the engine will run fine, but they will run out of fuel. If it uses too little, the engine can stall out, and if it does the plane will crash. "

Here is the Project's website. http://tam.plannet21.com/info.htm