smallest controlled flying vehicle here

[Jeff Savage]

are there any branches of this group interested in ultra small controlled slow flying vehicles. if so, how do I contact them. I am interested in unorthodox flying/hopping/hovering/floating/controled decent vehilcles.
thanks
J. S.

[Blackhawk]

You should talk to Don Srull--he dabbles in this area.

[Jeff Savage]

thanks...how do I get ahold of Don Scull?
js

[Rotaryphile]

I used to build fly-powered models when I was in high school. Horseflies beat all comers in the thrust derby. A 2" span scale P-40, with the "engine" kept on ice until the opportune moment arrived in French class really brought down the house. The teacher went on stress leave shortly thereafter. Such models were difficult to control, of course, but I think that a suitably lightweight control system might be within the reach of today's microelectronics.

Seriously, I have looked into tiny ornithopters quite extensively, although I should use the term "entomopters" if they are emulating insects rather than birds. They can be very efficient, and can hover at vastly higher power loadings than any helicopter ever dreamed of. I built a rubber powered, counter-flapping, rigid-wing dragonfly, a few years ago, and it flew pretty much as expected - not as well as the more common flex-wing types, but rigid wings are far better suited to high speed, engine powered flight, and this was my goal. Designing a practical, three axis control system for hover mode was a tough nut to crack, though, consuming hundreds of hours, and I am still not fully satisfied with the result.

[BrokenChild]

The smallest r/c plane Ive seen didnt have much of a wing on it at all.. and at a little over 2 ounces, was heavy for its size. The smallest r/c car ive seen was in a mag of popular science... the speck in the foreground was the r/c car, and the blob in the background, that was nearly ten times larger than the car, was actually the head of a match :D Isnt it all ironic sometimes? If we could solve the problems with lift at the size of the head of a match, then we would most likely have built even smaller r/c systems... In the same year as the small r/c car, (1995) Popular Science showed an r/c spyplane that looks so close to a grasshopper, that if it buzzed passed your ear at 35 miles an hour, you wouldnt think twice is to what it was that you saw... I'm completely sure that if the American Government (or someone with as high of standards) were to need a spyplane small enough to get really close to someone, say the biggest drug dealer on the face of the planet, then they could build a complete flying spyplane, with audio and visual recorders, small enough to completely close your hand around. But then again, us r/c pilots and enthusists dont have a million dollars to play with, so we're by far, more limited in our fun....

[Blackhawk]

Don Srull's email is on the vendor list.