Could the Wright Flyer Work as an RC Airplane?

[@tested]

Learn more about Wing drone delivery at: www.youtube.com/@Wing Testing the Limits of Delivery Drones: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j5mxl5ibn9p1r6s Adam Savage Explores Wing’s Drone Engineering Workshop!: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lXO7nmmaia2pj5I

[@L0CKW0OD]

this timing is perfect for Wright Brothers Day

[@MarshalltheWarlock]

I always wanted to ask the Myth Busters: Could ancients have made a hot air balloon? They had looms, silk, and firepits... is it possible they only lacked the know how?

[@tsamoka6496]

Someone needs to build a working model of a P-1112 Aigaion from Ace Combat 6! =^x^=

[@charlienangle3767]

Uploaded on December 17, the 121st anniversary of their first flight!

[@Wing]

❤❤❤

[@OMG_No_Way]

Came to make the same comment

[@nickfosterxx]

Cool comment, thank you. Bonkers how far things have changed since then, and yet the pace of change has accelerated in so many other technologies at an ever faster rate.

[@Trixstien]

December 17th is my birthday and proud to share my day with such a historic day as the first flight, which is ironic cause I love flying. You could say I would born to love it. :P

[@Wing]

Thanks for inviting Adam to come hang out and talk airplane design! ✈️

[@DreIsGoneFission]

Let me know if you ever need another engineer on any of the teams you are in charge of!

[@foxracerdrew]

Love to see people that love their toys as much as their job, or should that be the other way around? xD Can I just throw out a couple of suggestions, like the 325i/350R from Star Citizen, I always thought that would make a great looking flyer, or the avro car? And finally how about a quad drone with only one rotor? Sort of using the principle of bladeless fans? That is after all what the Harrier is essentially. Anyway, love seeing this sort of thing.

[@Average_Brad]

Compliments to whomever designed your logo. The flying wing and it's shadow forming a "W" is peak graphic design. Very cool.

[@charliedulin]

Love to know if any of those drones reported are yourz. Theres a pic of one especially that looks like yours with the rotor booms extending way out in front of the main hull.

[@JordanColeman-r8w]

Thank you for the inspiration! Leaving for the dollar store now to stock up on foam board 😉✌️

[@shiftymiata]

The RC to aviation career pipeline is seriously strong. I had a friend in middle school who's dad had RC planes, we went flying with him a few times and now both of us are aircraft mechanics! RC is a seriously fantastic STEM hobby for young people, and something you can continue to stay active in for your whole life. If you go to any RC events, you'll see just as many 12 year olds as you will 90 year olds. It's fantastic.

[@danielweston9188]

Goes both ways My Dad was in the AirForce and when he got out he took up building models to fly.

[@williamescolantejr5871]

@@danielweston9188 can remember yet learning basic rc learning an flying sail planes an thinking how in the world does this thing still able to go distance into the wind.well was only 14yrs then an it was 1979 but learned the basics you need for fixed wing flight

[@atomicskull6405]

Unfortunately the FAA is killing the hobby with regulations that make no distinction between drones and model airplanes and helicopters.

[@Whitpusmc]

Just toured KSC and the number of model airplanes in astronauts references was significant. Sad Mayorkas is trying to kill that along with his other incompetent leadership.

[@trooperdgb9722]

And they talk.....because they have a common interest. Its the same in my sport of pistol shooting..but to be honest WHAT the activity is, is less relevant than the fact that it brings the generations together!

[@larrybremer4930]

The easy way to explain why Reynolds Numbers are important to sub scale models and wind tunnels is that when your model scales, the air does not. Its the same reason that flowing water on a miniature set is so obvious because the set is sub scale but the water is still full scale and thus behaves out of scale.

[@stevemcdonald1033]

In some test tanks for ships in places like Japan and Britain, they mix alcohol and water to scale down the viscosity to match the reduced size of the models.

[@larrybremer4930]

@@stevemcdonald1033 Its really only an issue for filming miniatures. For engineering and research (like ship hull testing with subscale models) they will normally just use plain old water and just account for the water density offset in the results. The math is really not that hard.

[@AlbertaGeek]

@@stevemcdonald1033 Interesting. I did not know that.

[@DreIsGoneFission]

I am an engineer and have never heard the Reynolds number explained that way, but I LOVE it. It is true intelligence to take something grand and complicated and unfold it so simply a child could understand. Doesn’t get much more weird than the Reynolds number, but this guy is truly intelligent.

[@physicswithpark3r-x3x]

never? it is standard physics 101, but yes, they do teach things very clumsily in engineering schools

[@rogerheatwole4103]

⁠@@physicswithpark3r-x3xI received a BS in Physics (1981) then a BS in Mechanical Engineering (1985). I don’t recall learning about the Reynolds number in Physics but fluid mechanics was not part of my Physics education. We did study fluid mechanics as part of the Mechanical Engineering curriculum.

[@physicswithpark3r-x3x]

@@rogerheatwole4103 I can only speak to UK universities, but what happens here is that in an effort to get bums on seats, Physics departments offer a wide range of "almost maths free" modules so that they can deliver the yearly number of graduates that warrant theit own number of staff members (this is just a reality of higher education funding, I am not passing judgment one way or the other). At the same time, we in the maths department offer CM QM, SR, GR, PDEs etc etc with an emphasis on the maths with the physics as motivation and applications. Physics u/g students told me they learned more serious physics in the Maths modules then their "own" modules!

[@donmurray2988]

As a young aero engineer in the 60s my first job was testing the X-21 laminar flow control airplane at Edwards AFB. Spent 3 years immersed in dealing with Reynolds’s Number effects but never heard it described as “stickiness” which is a great way to explain it!

[@wolpueh]

Dear Adam, thank you for showing us so many different topics - AND for me the most important: You are excited like a child and you always have a smile in your face exploring all the interesing things in the world. That is sooooo heartwarming and it touches my soul the most. Thank You for your wonderful being! ❤💚🤍🥰

[@zerombr]

Seeing Adam learn things still is so endearing

[@TheQuietPartisLoud]

Oh, this video gets so nostalgic for me. When I was a kid, I got super lucky, and my parents got me a rubber-band powered model of the wright flyer. It was like an assembly kit, and took so long to put all the parts together. But, it also had a proper rubber band system, powering TWO motors off one rubber band, at the same time. I ran that thing into the ground, and it taught me so freaking much about engineering, and was so exceptionally fun to work with.

[@loudechant7034]

I had the same or similar kit oh, maybe 50ish years ago. When I first put it together, albeit sloppily, it didn’t fly well. I kept taking it apart and putting it back together and then one day, purely by chance, it flew for about 30 seconds in my backyard. It was an epiphany for me and I suddenly understood how it worked.

[@z0mb13h0rd3]

The Convair has always fascinated me. From when I was a kid (in the 70’s) I have had a book about the history of flight from the late 50’s(?) and it has a section and great photos of it. This was a real treat seeing this - thanks!

[@golfnovember]

In 2003, when EAA built a Wright Flyer replica to fly on the Centennial of Flight, they noted the same thing, very pitch sensitive. Even in the picture capturing the first flight in 1903 shows the elevator nearly full up. Very interesting insight on the design of the Wright Flyer. Thanks for doing this!

[@Wing]

Cool - Thanks for sharing!

[@cobburn]

I noticed the same thing flying it in MSFS, very easy to pitch up and stall.

[@tauncfester3022]

the 1903 Kittyhawk flyer was different enough compared to the 1906 Dayton flyer which was to have addressed this problem, kinda.. The thing is, with all of these early forward elevator canard Wright Flyers was that they didn't really understand the fact that the center of lift on undercambered airfoiled wings is really sensitive to longitudinal stability, and that later pioneering aircraft like the Farman, Curtiss Headless, Cody and Bleriot IX discovered that your main wings become a lot more stable in the pitch axis when the surfaces controlling the pitch are in the propeller slipstream and are on a long enough moment arm. Even the Wrights knew this when they built the VinFizz as they had finally *bleep*canned their forward canardevator for a rearward, cruciform rear boom mounted elevator and ruddered tail in 1910. After a few people had been killed and injured in their Dayton design because of it's extreme pitch touchiness.

[@madyogi6164]

"Pathological need to break the Z axis" - I liked that :D

[@mikestoneman4292]

Every fall for 25 years, there has been an event called the North East Aircraft Technology (NEAT) Fair, where hundreds of RC pilots come together in upstate New York to fly electric airplane models. One of the highlights every year has been seeing what crazy thing Adam Woodworth would bring. The X wing was a big hit, but my favorite was the full size inflatable Shamu the Killer Whale pool floatie, which flew surprisingly well with an electric prop on his nose!

[@Racores]

The year with the pool floaties was epic

[@stuartstephens]

Engineering is science in practice, and you have to practice. That's a really nice and simple way of putting it, and as an engineer I've often struggled to explain. Thanks for putting it into words.

[@petergerdes1094]

omg those rc indoor aerobatic flights are amazing and super pretty/artistic. It's like a gymnastics floor routine for RC planes.

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

They're intense, watching people that are really good do 3D, I remember watching the acrobatic RC pilots building foam planes similar to the ones Adam mentioned early in the video. The things those folks could do absolutely blew my mind.

[@-danR]

Since he has a real penchant for shaving off milligrams of unnecessary weight for indoor craft, he might want to revive the 1950's manly art of making microfilm airfoils instead of mylar.

[@arkos1970]

In the 80's my Dad helped get the Pogo off of a barge at the Navy yard in DC as it was on it's way to Silver Hill. He always said if he had known what his day was gonna be ahead of time he would have let me skip school and go to work with him.

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

I like your dad. He sounds like a good one. That seems like very reasonable thing to do, had he known. That would have been cool, and he wanted to share it with you.

[@arkos1970]

@@goosenotmaverick1156 Yeah he was a good guy Ex army K9 MP who went on to be a DOD mechanic afterwards. He worked many an Airshow at Andrews as he could drive an emergency services wrecker and I was always welcome to tag along. When older regrettably missed the post show services BBQ due to having to work but he never failed to let me know i missed a fun time.

[@blechnik]

its just great to listen to him explaining lots of stuf in very simple ways! As a propulsion engineer, i have heard and read much of this stuff, but makes it very approachable!

[@darrylhayashi8958]

For most of my life, i have been into cars and RC cars. To be honest, i have never really thought about delving into RC planes. But listening to this gentleman talk about his work and obvious passion for what he does makes me want to look into what i might have been missing all these years.

[@r1m.dog78]

Do it! It's an awesome and very addictive hobby.

[@sea_kerman]

Watch some Flite Test stuff, their build kits are great.

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

I've always been a surface guy myself. I've tried and I just need more practice on something reasonable, it's fun. I've been out of both for a while but I think maybe it's time to have another go

[@JordanColeman-r8w]

I've been into RC cars for 20 plus years, used to race 4wd/2wd buggy and short course trucks and about 4 years ago got into airplanes and helicopters. Take the leap and you won't regret it!!!

[@pkf4124]

You wont regret it, I do both

[@ModitRC]

Adam is the best! Always an inspiration for us modelers. So cool to see him on this show.

[@tomsobotta520]

Ok wow, thatś super fascinating - With this video I learned more about aviation today than before in my life. Thank you both very much 👌🏼👏🏼

[@tested]

Many thanks for watching!

[@maaadcheddar]

I JUST got into building RC airplanes at 33 after dreaming of it as a kid. I am so glad this video just released, we really need more people in the hobby. It's so affordable to get into right now compared to the past.

[@cobburn]

Me too at but in the next decade of my age than yours lol. Can only Imagine if i was a kid now doing it. Oh well at least I have adult money to do it now lol

[@GregoryC21]

If you just started RC, I’d recommend Flite Test videos on KZbin. They have a website too and you can build RC planes out of foamboard, packing tape, and hot glue

[@GBLynden]

That is how I landed in RC Hobby myself. My Uncle had the super spendy ones I always wanted but could not afford until I was an adult.

[@gcmehojah]

I've been flying RC airplanes when electrics were brand new. Heavy battery packs and monster car gear boxes mounted to these planes we bulit from plans. All hand launches at the time because we couldnt afford landing gear weight. Heady times for us, and nobody really builds from plans and balsa anymore

[@DinJaevel]

So far, all my rc airplanes have had a bias towards earth.

[@r1m.dog78]

Sims like RealFlight are a great tool to help with that 👍

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

Same here 😂 I find that when you stay on the ground, that's just one less thing you can crash into 😂😂😂

[@harbl99]

If any one ask, you're gathering data on the lithobraking elements of aeronautics.

[@HandicapRacer]

Stop buying kamikaze models 😅😂

[@johnanon6938]

This is because gravity sucks! :D

[@grouchitis]

I'd love to see him inspiration from some of the early flight attempts that failed, except making the necessary changes to make them capable.

[@phobson70]

Watching Adam becoming instantly and completely enthralled by the idea of a desktop fish tank aerobatic model that could take off, loop, and land, may have been the best moment of the video.

[@tellyfaulkner3466]

Thanks guys. That was really fascinating.

[@microbuilder]

Yes, yes it could, I had a 12" one about 15 years ago. Been wanting to try building a micro one ever since...one of these days... Very cool project!

[@nickfosterxx]

The comments on this video are fantastic, between nostalgic, inspirational and downright humbling.

[@giantweevil2737]

I got to fly a replica 1902 Wright Glider. Your description of the flight characteristics was spot on. It was super twitchy in pitch and slowwww and side slippy in turns. Had about a one second delay for turning.

[@nickfosterxx]

What?! I mean, wow, I no idea such things even existed. Great comment thank you.

[@cobburn]

Sounds pretty true to MSFS, as that's my only credentials lol

[@giantweevil2737]

@@cobburn the glider I flew is at Kitty Hawk Kites in Outer Banks.

[@7demo7review]

Adam is a super nice guy. I met and interviewed him at a SoCal AMA show (if I remember correctly). He was flying a x wing fighter and a Lego plane

[@TheTomD]

Exceptional video, please keep up with these! I have built and (somewhat successfully) flown a few foamboard RC builds - I absolutely loved it but haven't been keeping up with it. Adam, it would be amazing to see you venture into this...

[@ginogarcia8730]

coolest video i ever seen in awhile anywhere

[@timrodriguez1]

Adam Woodworth is such a great pilot and builder. 🤘🤠

[@danpedersen55]

He's insanely good at explaining, fantastic 😊 made my day 👍

[@rootKLM]

Listening to Adam is so fascinating and inspiring!

[@maxbennedbk7085]

out here asking the right questions, it makes me so happy when a new video hits the line :D

[@Cary_Glenn]

Lots of good lessons in here about any job: Keeping your technical skills when you also have to be at meetings. Cutting extraneous material. You have to practice and you have to fail.

[@skyra1der]

As an RC aircraft enthusiast I have to say this was a great episode! I ended up being a software engineer, but I really should have gone into aviation full-time.

[@golfnovember]

RC flying is a gateway drug for aviation, be it engineering, maintenance, manufacturing, or flying. Im a product of that, too.

[@Wing]

100% 🙌

[@krotchlickmeugh627]

Except ots now being regulated even stricter than actual aviation.

[@KiwiandPixel]

@@krotchlickmeugh627Total hyperbole. I do both. RC aviation is very much the wild west and almost nobody is enforcing the few rules we do have.

[@forestgremlinfpv7732]

​@KiwiandPixel the problem I'm finding is that there are almost no actual hobby shops left that sell supporting gear for the old school stuff. Where I live glow fuel is next to impossible to find now. That's how I started and it's a bad sad to see, after the online stores became king

[@thercbarn5001]

I just love all the different types of rc modeling! It sure has changed a lot in the 40 years I've been building and flying!

[@GBLynden]

What a cool video! For obvious reasons, this video resonates with me 👊🏻💥👊🏻

[@ReginatorNet]

The impressive thing about the Wright brothers and other early pioneers is: They were in uncharted territory with limited prior-science to guide them. They did the impossible and unthinkable with what tools were available (or they invented tools), which propelled mankind forward.

[@jliller]

A trend I noticed reading about some breakthrough inventors like the Wright Brothers and Marconi: they had a unique balance of brilliance and ignorance, wherein they accomplished what seemed impossible because they hadn't been mislead by established knowledge, but also that lack of formal knowledge seemed to limit their ability to effectively refine their invention.

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

​@@jliller sometimes it's better when we don't know what we can't or shouldn't do. And often we learn much from those moments that follow. It's not often, but it sure has led to some amazing discoveries.

[@no1DdC]

@@jliller What's interesting is that this almost always leads to the inventors being quickly left behind as a result. More conventionally trained engineers use these breakthroughs as inspiration ("Oh, we can do that now?"), but then are able to improve upon them to a much greater degree.

[@jliller]

@@no1DdC Indeed. There's a lesson in there about Design and Development.

[@joeobrien4869]

Ppl had been flying gliders long before as well as hot air balloons as well as powered flight the wright brothers just got a light enough engine first​@jliller

[@air-headedaviator1805]

2:37 I love this section, cause it reveals how consistent the two of the Wright brothers ideas on control remain even on small scale models. They believed that the only way to get a real plane that you could fly working was to make it unstable, as that allowed control.

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

I never thought much about that, but that is cool. I guess when you're trying to do something nature doesn't neccesarily "want" us to do, instability is likely neccesary. I think I'm thinking about that right, anyway. It's still fascinating to think about regardless.

[@charliedoyle7824]

The Wrights were not trying to make the aircraft unstable. They were the first to solve the problem, and designed the machine around tons of tradeoffs using crude parts. They were trying to balance the engine, drive mechanisms, the pilot, all those steel cables and wooden spars, on a Flyer that was very heavy with a weak motor, so they put the elevator in front. They didn't have the luxury of knowing that the problem of flight was solved, and thus working on an ideal solution. They were just trying to get the thing flying around with some control, so they could finally cash in on their great invention, which took seven years as of 1905. They only had so much money and time, and they weren't getting any younger. It took a big re-design over another decade, with material breakthroughs in sheet aluminum and engine advancements, by lots of design teams, to end up with the common configuration of the elevator on the tail with the rudder, and the engine in front, with a fuselage for the pilot.

[@nealstarling5422]

“Moment arm”, that’s the term I was looking for, thanks, it actually applies to rc boats as well 👍 Great video!!!

[@Lvvcassss]

F3P is a super fun class to fly. Insanely light, superslow, with gimmicks like reversible pitch propeler. And honestly quite cheap to build.

[@edwardmalec7671]

Adam REALLY knows his stuff. Especially details of what the Wright's did. Wow!

[@Hoekstes]

This AVgeek absolutely loved this episode, thanks! ❤

[@pauljefferies9087]

WOW! Wright brothers model plane flies spectacularly well. Nice work.

[@xtiansimon]

Aviation! Fantastic discussion. Wonderful guest. Brilliant.

[@DansAm76]

Love Cool RC airplane stuff. All Andy Clancy designs (especially the Lazy Bee) are my favorite due to the cartoonish looks and their very slow acrobatic capabilities thanks for the fun! 🎉

[@toka100]

27:01 There is some old videos on here of NCC- 1701 enterprise inside a giant swimming pool. It is “flying” around. Really cool to watch worth the searching. Stardock is part of the channel name.

[@iandale]

Haven’t seen the video yet, but I was asking myself this 2 days ago. Watching now! Excellent timing

[@bradarmstrong3952]

Thanks for sharing this special conversation with the world!

[@christianzoch3369]

Super cool video about the Hobby! Thank you :)

[@ericcox6764]

Imagine walking on to a modern A380 passenger airplane and seeing the pilots hanging from the ceiling of the cockpit in wing warping harnesses!! Thank God for innovation 😂😂

[@mattblack6736]

love this guy! A real gem of insight and wisdom.

[@dronecamps]

Loving seeing R/C on your channel man! Let’s do an indoor fpv racing drone episode!

[@davegager9531]

The prop comic (no pun intended), Gallagher, had a twin brother who also performed the Sledge-o-Matic act on opposite sides of the country. That's how HE did it. How do YOU do it? How do you find the time to do your builds, ComiCons,Tested videos, travel to all manner of fascinating places meeting all sorts of amazing people? Do you ever sleep? You absolutely floor me! I'm in awe of apparent ability to bi-locate! I'm so happy you're alive at the same time as me.

[@aaronredbaron]

Flying models is pure zen, the only thing better is sharing it with your kids! I am super fortunate to be a lifelong hobbyist and my son got the bug too!

[@rcgvideos]

Great video! Thanks for the mention. - Jim T.

[@Starfighter-nk4mo]

I love the idea of a tiny little stunt plane in a fish tank that is negatively buoyant, so it can fly slowly in water. When I was younger, I built a “glider” out of a steel rod (probably 1/2lb, 8 inch long) with little balsa wings sanded into aerofoils. It would sink if just dropped in water but with any forward speed it would glide super well in water. I would so buy a desk toy that’s like a two gallon fish tank with a pits that’s 1/2inch wingspan to buzz around in it.

[@anthonylawson7877]

What a fantastic episode, so great information. I want to see AW's take on the Kyushu J7W1 Shinden.

[@Siskovski]

Hey this is going to be nice to see

[@383mazda]

That flying desktop fishbowl idea would be the coolest thing ever!!!

[@TekkGnostic]

This guy is really great at explaining things intuitively, he should be a teacher.

[@liamisfluffy]

If adam woodworth makes that fishtank idea come to life as a product I would buy it!

[@flyboywbl]

Been building RC planes since I was a kid. It’s so fun. I’ll never stop

[@tnwhitley]

Awesome seeing all the model aircraft designs flying!

[@JordanColeman-r8w]

As a foam board builder this video brought me great joy, thank you for the inspiration ✌️❤️🛩️🛬🛫✈️

[@tested]

Wonderful! Thanks for taking the time to tell us.

[@Werd2jaH]

There are several wright flyer Rc kits. I’m personally updating the “great planes wright flyer” kit to more modern tech!

[@DadsRCHangar]

Of course this is all my bag. Piloting a RC plane and building a plane from balsa, brings you closer to aviation. I love the science around aviation, I wish I had more brains. Always thought of making a mini earth with fluid iron etc, and see if it would fly. Thanks Adam for this video.

[@GBLynden]

Totally my Friend!

[@solandri69]

The Wright brothers were bicycle makers. They knew a bicycle was dynamically stable with the steering wheel in front (push it forward and the steer wheel tries to straighten out). Unstable with the steering wheel in back (push it backwards and the steer wheel tries to turn more). They incorrectly assumed the same would be true for aerodynamics, and put the pitch control surfaces out in front. If they'd realized hydrodynamics was the same as aerodynamics (fluid dynamics) and looked at ships, they would've known the control surfaces like the rudder should be in back to be stable. Paul MacCready (built the first man-powered aircraft to cross the English Channel) encountered this same problem when he took a contract to build a RC pterasaur for a TV show. It steered by turning its head (in front), which made it dynamically unstable. An animal immediately able to turn its head based on what it saw and how it felt could control its unstable flight. But it was impossible for a pilot controlling a little dot in the sky via RC. He ended up having to design a rudimentary flight computer which would make micro-adjustments to the head to keep it stable, independent of the commands via RC.

[@nickfosterxx]

Fascinating, thank you.

[@sealiesoftware]

The Wrights learned early that their "tail-first" canard configuration was less stable. They noted that their 1900 glider was more stable when moving backwards. But they kept that layout for safety reasons. First, a canard helps prevent stalls. When approaching a stall the canard stalls before the wing, causing the craft to pitch down, improve speed and angle of attack, and recover from the stall. Second, putting all of that hardware out in front of the pilot means they are less likely to crash face-first into the ground when something goes wrong. The Wrights were keenly aware that they needed to learn to control flight without killing themselves in the process, unlike poor Otto Lilienthal with his glider. Right or wrong they made many design decisions in pursuit of safety.

[@owensparks5013]

I liked the bit where Adam was talking.

[@ThisPartIsAndrew]

I'm so excited for the Dragonfly program, and how I can live long enough to fly drones in Titan's atmosphere is something I think about a lot.

[@garywiseman5080]

Great guest!

[@krillen64]

This is a really interesting and has a good lesson in it that you can use with so many aspects of life.

[@thirdiprodigy3579]

I learned so much thank you.

[@Marsamsung]

This video bring back chilhood nostalgia, when i first explored the pages of comptons encyclopedia at my dads man cave slash drafting room slash home office and saw a picture of that convair vtol, coolest plane ive ever seen and though "they have that in America?" Wow!, got me so interested in aviation, i live in the philippines and having a 24 volume encyclopedia set is quite a priviledge as i ponder of it when i got older. At pre-teens I browse those books as i would the internet today...im in my late 50s now.

[@lignamorren]

What that radially symmetric plane needs is a hoop wing. I've no doubt that Adam has thought of that, though. This goes back at least to 1967 (judging by the wonderful "The Great International Paper Airplane Book" about SciAm's First Intl. Paper Airplane Competition), but there, the fuselage goes through the rim instead of the center.

[@StevenIngram]

The solution for Adam's fish tank airplane idea may be to use mineral oil instead of water. Does away with the need to seal or conformally coat the electronics (simplifying building the plane). It also has better radio penetration than water. More viscous than water though, so it may be a really slow flying experience. :D

[@putteification]

Water is pretty translucent in the visible light spectrum, so maybe use that to control the models? I would use distilled water in the tank.

[@charliedoyle7824]

I used to live in Kill Devil Hills NC, a few hundred meters from where Wilbur and Orville learned to fly, and I worked for Kitty Hawk Kites teaching hang-gliding and selling flying toys. I can tell you that this Wright Flyer RC model is a product that needs to be put on the market. Kitty Hawk Kites would sell the hell out of that thing if it can be made at enough scale to be $100 or less. We used to sell lots of the little wind-up plastic flapping birds all day long in the kite shop. The founder of KHK is John Harris, a First Flight Society long-time member and organizer who loves the Wright Brothers. The hang-gliding department has a replica Wright glider from 1902, the first good glider in the world. He would sell lots of RC Wright Flyers to his many hang-gliding students and tourist kite customers. From there the product could be sold on Amazon worldwide.

[@card_stock_gliders]

Adam W. has imparted some really useful bits of aerodynamic knowledge in this discussion. Thanks! ... I've got some damselfly chuck gliders in one of my videos for those interested in bio-inspired stuff.

[@mikereinhardt4807]

I don't know if anyone else has noticed but what he made with the "X" wing airplane is actually an "X" wing fighter from Star Wars. I wonder if you could make a full size one with the wings retracted to make a standard wing but open up in flight to give different aerodynamic capabilities? So interesting, thank you for sharing!...

[@Kirktalon]

As a kid, I made paper airplanes out of index cards, based on the various shapes planes have had throughout history. I think I learned a lot about aerodynamics, including the idea that putting the elevator out front makes for less stability. Putting it in the back is much better.😊

[@Spuce_Doofus]

I love the way Adam (woodworth) talks with his hands

[@Reticulosis]

Adam is awesome af.

[@PiotrStaszewski]

Engineering is indeed about practice. I'd love that X-Wing axially-symmetric plane to be a kit I could purchase, build, paint and crash on the maiden flight!

[@paulpetersen5878]

That is so cool, I really like that as an idea. I would love to see someone make a spruce goose RC model as well.

[@tauncfester3022]

About the Convair Pogo as an RC model.. There were some pioneering RC modellers back in the early aughts who had built counter-rotating propeller twin motored brushless prop drives. I saw one of Jerry Holcomb's models of the Convair Pogo, at the Celebration of Silent Flight RC meet in Washougal, WA. It worked very well but needed a mixer for the two controllers for the counter rotating prop drive on his model so it had more precise roll control.

[@Durandalski]

I was a lifelong aviation buff, from the time I was very little. But I never had the resources to actually get into RC or anything. So when I earned my private pilot certificate there was a number of things I learned that I found fascinating. For example, the way the CG of a conventional aircraft is forward and the horizontal stabilizer actually pushes down. I always imagined it was lifting, but once you understand it makes perfect sense. Adverse yaw, trim, there’s so much to learn just to fly an airplane. Perhaps this is why there are so many homebuilt airplanes, you can’t fly planes without developing some connection to how they work, and that can lead to the desire to build them.

[@AirJimInCT]

I see a Convair XFY-1 Pogo! I'm immediately interested.

[@SeanAnwalt]

As for the TIE Interceptor I heard a thing about aerodynamics once that may prove helpful. This was in relation to the F-4 Phantom fighter jet: If you stick a big enough engine on it, you can get a brick to fly. So Adam! Let us build (Mostly you, obviously, you're the star with an enviable shop) a TIE Interceptor and stick a friggin' rocket motor on it, and take it to one of those airshows you guys mention in this video! And make it robust so when it inevitably crashes it won't be destroyed.... I promise I'm not the only one who says I'd love to see THAT!

[@johnanon6938]

The full sized pogo had 2 counter-rotating propellers and its design was fascinating at least to me in the decades before the internet. And back then the idea of air-carrier/blimps that could deploy and catch fighter planes like the McDonnell Goblin was equally crazy.

[@nerys71]

The pogo was also one of my favorite airplanes if I remember correctly it had two propellers and they were counter rotating

[@KALEL_TRON]

Absolutely would and does work as an rc plane seem several of them and made a few myself using the model kit from the Wright memorial gift shop. It is awesome!!

[@carlosallende2595]

The twin fuselage hover plane reminds me of the heavier than airships described both by Jules Verne, and of similar air ships described by George Griffith in his 1894 book "Angel of The Revolution A tale of the coming Terror". The hover propellers giving the craft/ship faster ascending speed than a traditional aeroplane would have. Fascinating stuff. I always enjoy your videos. Have Fun, Carlos.

[@Wufnu]

I remember getting into the RC airplane hobby 20+ some odd years ago, when electrics were relatively new and coming into their own, and learning about this fantasy competition of the name "F3P" where they did seemingly impossible aerobatics and seeming impossible speeds. Then there were these mad hatter DIY folk making so-called "living room flyers" doing incredible things in terms of small/light aircraft. It's very interesting, and encouraging, to see the modern state of the art.

[@tauncfester3022]

Just wanted to say that, back in the mid aughts there's this RC model supply company in the Midwest, called Radical-RC, that had a Wright flyer balsa and film kit that used the very popular GWS Indoor Power Systems motors and very light 6 gram servos and Lipoly 2S batteries. Flew pretty good considering. Your model is a Wright flyer replica but it doesn't actually replicate the flight control dynamics of the real Wright flyer. It needs a servo on the canard elevator and the rear rudder and you might try making the wings warp. The full scale Wright flyer also had slight anhedral to the wings. The wing's wire rigging of the Wright flyer was pretty complex as it also was part of the wing warping system. I scratchbuilt a 1/12" scale R/C model of Henry Farman's Farman III, which was one of the early aircraft Henry built and he flew in competition at the Grande Samaine d'Aviation at Rheims in 1910. There's a whole bunch of weird and rather contradictory aerodynamics to this old aircraft; from it's lifting boxkite tail and big, forward mounted full flying canardevator, to single acting ailerons which normally didn't rise up but were only pulled down, which generates lots of adverse yaw. it also had a very rearward center of gravity, because of the boxkite tail surfaces, and the 50 h.p. Gnome rotary powering was blowing a lot of propwash over the lifting boxkite tail, which at the time didn't have a pitch control flight surface. Yet it and the Curtiss 1910 flyer both did really well in the flight trials and races at Rheims.

[@user-jh3cy6kw8t]

Great video overall. But I really have to comment on the t shirt graphic. Very cool and visually disruptive. Such a trick of the mind.

[@erniemiller1953]

@23:00 This is where the canard of the Wright Flyer would work well. With the horizontal in front, the wash would not have as strong of effect.