![]() ![]() ![]() I suspect it would be very dangerous to get close to the ground flying like this. Not only would this take a high performance aircraft but a high performance pilot. I would expect more like it slowly lifting itself from the ramp, likely twist about slowly from the prop torque to clear the ramp, then get a bit of forward motion to steady itself, and then gain some altitude and transition to level flight. I wouldn't expect it to zoom off like some rocket, or even burst into the air like that little electric model airplane. Then for an encore the airplane could tilted up with some kind of hydraulic ramp to nearly vertical, and take off almost straight up into the air. ![]() ![]() With all wheels on the ground the prop could be feathered and brakes applied to minimize forward movement. It could come in real slow down to the runway and then shortly after the tail wheel touches the ground it "belly flops" on to the front wheels. I can imagine an airplane flying like this down to a runway and landing in a space not much bigger than the plane itself. The question is more like, is there video of full sized airplane with a pilot inside flying about like a helicopter? I've seen full sized piloted propeller airplanes go straight up before, and reaching considerable speeds and altitude in the process, so there's propeller aircraft with enough power to pull this off. This radio controlled airplane proved the aerodynamics worked. The question isn't so much about if this is physically possible. This would require a powerful airplane like those built for racing and aerobatics. This would require an airplane with a thrust to weight ratio greater than 1-to-1, and likely other features like a radiator capable of dissipating the engine heat with far less than optimal airflow. I can imagine that this is an impossible maneuver by most aircraft by the virtue of the propeller providing all the lift. The aircraft's ability to launch or recharge from overhead power lines didn't interest me as much as the idea of an aircraft that looked like a very typical single propeller airplane flying around like a helicopter. The idea of launching from and returning to a horizontal wire was to allow the drone to recharge from overhead power lines. The commentary on the video I saw of this aircraft explained that the idea was to use this as an observation drone that was capable of flying like any airplane would to get high speed and long range, at least faster and farther than one could expect from a quad rotor drone, as well as achieve a near hover, able to follow a slow moving target or make tight circles about a stationary target. It could navigate quite well this way with its nose in the air "helicoptering" about, then once it found the wire it launched from with its hooks it could cut the engine and hang from the wire. It could travel horizontally "forward" (belly first), "backward" (top first), perhaps even side to side (wingtip first) while maintaining a consistent altitude. As I recall it could steer itself around using control surfaces no different from those on any airplane, at least nothing stuck out as unusual about the control surfaces and I don't recall anything in the commentary that would indicate the control surfaces deviated from the norm. Then to get back to it's launching point it would point its nose into the air and fly about almost like a helicopter. It could then fly about like a typical airplane would. The "trick" it could do was that it could hang from these hooks vertically from a horizontal wire suspended in the air and launch itself into the air using this single propeller for thrust. It looked like a typical remote controlled airplane except its single propeller appeared rather oversized for the airplane, and it had small hooks on the end of stiff wires that extended forward from the wings to out beyond the propeller. What makes me ask is that I saw a battery powered remote control airplane that flew in this manner. If there's a different name for this maneuver then I'd like to know what that is. With the nose of the aircraft pointed nearly vertically it should be quite obvious that nearly all the lift is from the prop. I expect the airplane to move horizontally quite slowly, slowly enough that the wings provide very little lift. I don't expect the airplane to hover, and I expect that to be impossible since the torque of the engine would leave the airplane spinning like a top. What I'm talking about with what I would call a "helicopter" maneuver in an airplane is to fly with the nose pointed nearly straight up while maintaining a constant altitude. Has anyone tried to "helicopter" an airplane? And succeeded? And posted this video on the internet where I can find it? ![]()
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