Are there any individuals or manufacturers working on a VTOL harrier? or possibly a proper turbofan for this airplane? ducted fan just doesnt cut it! I heard at one point there were a few guys/teams in europe trying to make this jet happen! Does anyone know how they are doing?

Bedford,
The US Rc Jet Command site has the following link on Eric Dainty's Harrier project. It's a little out of date but there are plenty of details. I'm sure there are other projects out there but this is the first one that came to mind.
http://www.ottawarcclub.com/ericd.htm

I will be working on a STOVL JSF, which will use a turbo shaft to drive a fan.
This is a scratch project and won't start until the fall.
Chris

Hi!
The link below seems to have disappeared. Du you know if there is a new site somewhere? I really would like to read the Harrier story :-)

Cheers,
// Joakim W

Here is what I have been working on in the past 5 years.
I hope to have it completed by the end of next year.
The turbo-fan produces 40 pounds of thrust after losing roughly 40% of the thrust through the 4 nozzels. The Harrier is 1/6th scale.

Is this a homebuilt turbine? How about that little jewel you had on here earlier this year, built any more of those? Your ducting looks like carbon fiber in the rear pic. I have an article with a couple of pics showing Dainty's butterfly valves in the wings-actually it was a one page of MAN's last page they do each month. I have a set of three views I had blown up sometime back to a 1"to 1' thinking one day I'd attempt to build one . Good luck, keep us posted!

Wing and fuse plugs

I am floored that you said anything!!

This was the best kept secret in Southern California!

This is a 100% home built turbo-fan. The carbon fiber is the ducting for the front nozzels My main focus is the Harrier now and I only plan on flying the 2 1/4" turbine for fun, I don't know what its future may hold.

Your right the guys that did know were faithfull. But its time to show it. I don't want to be the last guy that comes out with one.
This is still a long way away but the hardest part is done.
Should just be a matter of time.

Looks great, keep us up to date on your progress.

I hope it won't take ya another five years! LOL

If your turbine produces 40 lbs thrust after losing 40%, you've got one powerful engine! Care to share any of the details of the engine construction? Off the shelf turbine wheel-or home spun? What's the diameter of the engine? Are you going to have the valving to the rudder, wing tips etc., bleed off of what you;ve already built or do you have another trick up your sleeve?

Cool! Thanks for sharing. Has it been flown/hovered yet?

Thanks Terry, I hope it won't take another 5 years either.
The engine core is 4.75"in diameter and the fan is 7"in diameter.
All parts are made by myself, not one part on this engine is off the shelf (AMA is going to Love me!!!!!!!!!!).
I will use bleed air off the engine to power all 5 reaction control valves.

Eddie Weeks made vertical jet called "Rig #1 & #2" View it at his web page:

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

Wow, Pegasus that's really cool! When do you think that you will have that sucker flying? I am 13 years old. I am getting a Jet-Cat P-80 turbine and putting it in my Phillip Avond F-15, But nothing that crazy!
Corey Reese
Discount Hobby Warehouse Flight Demonstration Team

Eric Dainty's harrier is definetly a great engineering project. I have seen him at our field with his harrier a few times but only the earlier version which is just a touch to heavy for complete vertical takeoff but it definetly comes close. He takes off in just 5-10 feet of role and lands in about 10 feet. His newest harrier that flew at the bay of quinty did the vertical takeoff and landing successfully. An rc airplane manufacturer bought the plane that flew at the bay of quinty and has had it since.

Our web site has changed and his pictures are no longer their it would seem. Our new site is www.ottawarcclub.ca

If you are really interested I can speak to a few of the guys and get the portion of the site that used to exist and put it somewhere for you to see.

Enjoy!

I plan on flying the first Harrier this spring as a regular jet to get to know the airframe, CG, stab postition etc. By then I will start the VTOL version, and maybe by next fall I will try to hover it.
I will try to post some video of the engine running in the new year on a friends web site.
You have to hear this thing run, it sounds just like the full size Pegasus turbo fan.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All I can say is WOW!!!! I have been hoping to see something like this for a while. I am sure the GTBA guys are going to love this one.! I sent you a email, I need to talk to you more on this.

Pegasus, that is some great work. I looks like your on your
on your way.

I have some advise. In order to get something to hover
the reaction control system (puffers, tail rotors ect) must
be able to produce 8-10 percent thrust, of the weight of
the plane. So your 30 lb harrier much have ~ 3lbs of thrust
in all axis, except yaw. This thrust much have a very
quick reaction time also.

Before I built the Rig, I tested a bleed air system
using shop air at 40 psi, and was unable to make more
than a few oz of thrust. There was just not enough pressure.

Good luck with your project.

Eddie Weeks

I have looked at Eric Dainty's harrier very closely
and could not find any reaction control system on it.

Is there one ? How does it work?

Eddie Weeks

I am hoping to have the weight slightly under 30 pounds with roughly 3 pounds of thrust for the puffer jets. The reaction time is what worries me.
I don't know how Eric is doing his puffer jets.

That is amazing!!!!!!!!!
What is the diameter of the fan and how many RPM does it run?
Do you have any pics of the front of the engine?
I can't wiat to see the video of it running.

Great job!!!!!!!!!!!

Will the rear nozzles flow at higher a rate than the front like the full size and if so how would you control the instability problem before and after the CG?

Hi Pegasus,
Awesome project!
A few others have done D/F harriers in years gone by. One or two featured in UK mags, maybe even RCJI. The ones I saw used bleed air from the fan in oversized ducts (+- 1.5 x 1.5 ") to tail and wingtips and using servos to direct thrust. Seems to have worked for them to some extent. I think traplet has one on video as well. I would think for best result the centre of lift and gravity should be close also in the vertical axis to be as effective as possible and all mass as close as possible to the CG to reduce the innertia in rotating around that axis.
As far as control goes a fast acting control system that can correct when the required reactions are still pretty small would have a beter chance. Old flying buddy now working in the US for Athena has done just that with his VTOL drones. To date he is the only one to get a robot to run on a single wheel without falling over. Secret was a heavy reaction wheel for control, similar to what we are using on our micro sattelites.
Cheers
Andre