Pegasus, great project!
The "co-pilot" is made by FMA https://www.fmadirect.com/site/fma.h...roducts&cat=29
Another choice could be the futaba PA-2 http://www.futaba-rc.com/radioaccys/futm0999.html
I have the old version of the FMA co-pilot on a heli. It works very well.
/Doug

I don't think an infared device in a turbine plane would work.

Eddie Weeks

That's a good point Eddie!
The Futaba version is optical, but not as fancy in the software dept as the FMA co-pilot.
I don't know about hovering a heli, but they can be set very aggressively and work well with fixed wing.
There was an article (I think in MAN) about somebody mounting one in a wing to hover and torque roll a .40 sized stunt plane.
"What's the worst that can happen...?"

Just wanted to bump this thread up. More news, Pegasus?

I have been getting stick time on the first Harrier, lots to learn on this airframe. I have a new Harrier layed up, roughly 4 pounds lighter, I need to get the weight down for the size of the wing, the wing loading is just to high. That will also help when its time to hover it. I have had a little glider practice with it lately, NOT FUN!!!!!!!!!!!! Doesn't thermal worth a damn! When the engine is out it slows down like a jet landing on a aircraft carrier. I have never seen a aircraft slow down on a flame out the way this one does. Thank God for El Mirage, theres always a place to set it down, any other field I would be on my third or fourth jet by now.
I have also been working on all the reaction control puffer jets and hope to start testing these by the end of the year.

You may want to check out this project also, very cool stuff going on here . . .

http://www.awatson1.fsnet.co.uk/

PEOPLE U R JUST THE BEST OF THE BEST!!
KEEP ON GOING COSE I WANT 2 C THIS HARRIER AIRBORN!

GEORGE / GREECE

You have amazing projects. I'm interested in building a small turbine and I'd like to know how you built your little one. Did you use special heigh-precision machinery or can it be done with a small mill and lathe ?
Did you use CNC or you did it by hand ? I'm interested in any tips you care to share.
Good luck, and keep us posted.

My 2.25" engine was made on a table top mill and lathe nothing fancy, just make sure you are accurate and your tolerances are tight. I tried CNC once, got mad at the computor and gave up.
Manual all the way!!!!!!!!!

Anything new?

Gobsmacked[X(]

I'm working on the bedstead, rear bifurcated pipe, nozzles, bearings etc.
I'm still getting stick time on the conventional flying Harrier, so far so good.
I hope I didn't Jinx it!!!!!!!!!!!
I have cool high speed pass video I will try to post it on my site soon.

Hey pegasus,

How's it coming along now? I've been quiet anixous about this for a long while now. Just wondering

Hey Pegasus.

What is the Mass flow of your engine.. ? The bypass flow only..

Thanks

Eddie Weeks

The bifurcated pipe, nozzles, bearings are almost finished, I should be able to test these in a few weeks then I will ready up the bedstead. That will be fun!!!!

The fans mass flow is around .9 KG/s
The core uses around .375KG/s of that flow.

Lets say your plane weighs 30 lbs... In order to hover you must produce 3 lbs of thrust
at any time for the rool and pitch axis...

Lets say you steel %20 of the mass flow of the bypass flow for the puffer jets...

13N ~ 3 lbs

13N = 0.18kg/sec * 72m/s

72 m/s is around 161 mph... Doesn't sound too fast.. If you use a large ducts
you may get your 3 lbs force...

What I don't know is the pressure behind your bypass fan... A good guess
is around 2 psi.... You may want to test your bed stand with large volumes
of air at 2 psi and see what you get...

One thing is for sure... your valves on the wing tips and tail will need to
be large and fast...

I made a small bedstand with 40 psi and did not get jack for thrust...

Hope this helps..

Eddie Weeks

We have everything calculated and figured out, we just need to finish the bedstead and start testing. I have plenty of spare thrust left over on the fan for the puffers. The amount of thrust needed on the puffers is really determined by the time constant of the control response desired. We have spent many hours calculating and measuring moment of inertia about all three axies. We have also added thrust in case of cross wind up to 15 MPH, or worst case scenario that 3 puffer jets are open at any given time. etc etc etc

If you were using 40 psi and did not get any thrust you need to increase your mass flow, get yourself some larger diameter pipe and a supply source that can provide the extra flow. It will work.


For those of you that would like to see it, I have another short video of my Harrier on my web site called "high speed pass"


http://cpl.usc.edu/eschuste/

My experience indicated its more of a function of the flying weight of the plane. You can break it
down into moments and angular accelerations but you will not know what angular acceleration
is fast enough... I think you are well on your way and the bed stand is the only way to go..

I flew the Rig on the strap for hours and it was a totally different animal when it flew on its own..

Eddie Weeks
http://www.corpcomp.com/weeks1/

It gives us a starting point, I don't trust numbers thats the reason to build the Bedstead.


Here is artical on the bedstead for those of you who are wondering what that is.
I don't think I would want that thing strapped to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/6290/testbed.htm

Here's the NASA version:

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/LLRV/index.html

Ewald
Wooow ,, just stumbled on to this thread.... what an amazing project.... and such great work being done by you .How is it going on the bedstead hover test bed .My son is working for Northrop Grumman out in San Deigo right now and is working on the UCAV's (unmaned combat aerial vehicles) If you need any computer programing for it ,,I am sure that he would love to help. His first R/C model after training was the front prop driven harrier that was out back in the 90's or so. I have emailed him this string. Keep up the good work.

May I link to your website??

I too am into VTOL proto types ==== V-22 Osprey tilt rotor .. My site is a freebie right now ,,so it is slow and shuts down frequently ,but I plan on doing more with it this winter.

[link=http://www.geocities.com/vtol]Welcome to R/C VTOl's[/link]


I just transitioned the v-22 to 60 degree forward flight succesfully but unfortunately had mechanical trouble when I came out and landed rather uncermoniously and hard ,,but am just about back together for another try... video to the transition is here.

[link=http://www.scalerchelis.com/gallery/Newest-V-22-in-gray-camo]v22 transition video[/link]



sparkplug
Did you ever get Erics stuff up any where???I use to have a link to his stuff on my website until it closed and would love to put up one for him if I could get all of the information back,, including the videos.

Larry

Thanks for the compliment. yes you can link my web site. I am having a real tough time making the rear bifurcated pipe. So the bedstead is on hold for now, I thought I had it figured out but with some not so good results due to heat. Anyone out there do stretch forming or deep drawing? If so email me. I may have to have some dies made but they are big $$$$$$$$ I will check out your video at work tomorrow this is on modem and very very slow.

Hi Ewald. Do you still need an ECU for your engine? I believe you sent me an email a short time ago but I have lost track of it. I would like to talk to you again about your project. My PH # is 512-259-9232. Bob Price

V22, VERY cool! Please let us know when you have more video posted after you get some more bugs worked out. Awesome project!

V22, nice work, I would like to see more video too, let us know when its posted

rjpmodel, I called and left a message

I dont think I can help you in any way, but I just have to say that this is purely amazing.

I cannot even begin to comprehend how much work and more importantly knowledge it took to get so far in this project.

I read this whole thread and I just can't stop thinking of what kind of person could bring a project like that to life.
This is a bit personal question, but I was wondering what is your professional background. A better question might be where did you get the technical skills required for this project.

Reading about it is interesting enough. I can only imagine what it feels like to be working on this project.
Good luck with your hovering efforts!
I'm following this closely from now on, very interesting stuff!