Flite Test - Flying Cinder Block - PROJECT

It's time to put the physics of flight to the ultimate test. Can the Flite Test boys get a cinder block to lift off of the ground?
We're using an electric motor that has 15 lbs. of thrust and the cinder block weighs 39 lbs. alone. The whole plane weighs about 49 lbs. The challenge was to create a super efficient airframe that would fly this much weight with as little energy as possible.
flitetest.com/a...

[@RichardBronosky]

If you can fly a cinder block, you should try flying the equivalent/similar weight in batteries. Then see how long you can keep it in the air. What's the world record for RC flight time?

[@Cambridge792]

+Richard “Bruno” Bronosky I'm guessing for ever, or at least a long time (10 hours) using solar panels.

[@wilgarcia1]

+Richard “Bruno” Bronosky it barely stayed aloft though, maybe half the weight, or two motors =)

[@RichardBronosky]

Oops. I didn't mean RC flight time. That's obviously a glider, blimp, or balloon. I meant for an RC Plane.

[@wilgarcia1]

lolz, car battery powering a plane makes me smile

[@kernelpanic2887]

In switzerland a men reach 12 a half hour, but with a glider. Must be very funny xD But I don't know what the world record was. My personal record was with an motoredglider 5h and with an Messerschmitt Me262 30mim, yeah for a jet is this much

[@choppergirl]

Good lord. I'm restoring an ultralight, and I just realized, I'm the brick....

[@kingjoebail7300]

Did u finish it?

[@choppergirl]

@@kingjoebail7300 No, I lost interest in them, and switched to quadcopters, which actually got me up in the air. Maiden Flight 3 days ago: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZTHfqasgZqefc0 I still go them though. Big honking impractical thingst that take up a lot of space. Quadcopters are so much more portable. If I leave it all on my motorbiek, to go fly, all I do is charge up 3 battery backs and go wherever I want to fly.

[@Hawk130Gaming]

Try instead of putting a cinder block put a 12v car battery in there and see how long it'll last.

[@theLuigiFan0007Productions]

I'd build a massive 12 F size Ni-MH cell pack inside a empty car battery case. At 13AH each, that means a output of 12V @ 26A rated output, as Ni-MH is generally good for 2C. Nice and weighty, and packs a punch. I built a UPS based on that, 2.6kWH total or 24 Cells. Expensive, yes, but more reliable then anything else. The controller is an Arduino logging power usage and events such as sags and spikes to a SD card. It trickle charges consumed power back at C/13 after power is restored, with a 15% overcharge. Output is 120VDC for backup power because SMPS are just as happy with DC and inverters are a waste of power in that scenario. Overcharge? At speeds =

[@demonhuntermoonwolf244]

Red'sDomain that is a brilliant idea

[@harrybrown5407]

Red'sDomain you we he car battery to power the motor somehow I think that would explode

[@ariguest596]

Bichingo that was an excellent pun, you know, 'props'

[@sewing1243]

McDonnell Douglas proved in the late 1950's that a brick could be made to fly if you have enough thrust when they designed and flew the first F-4 Phantom II.

[@Nicbaggins]

Ha! Well that plane is ugly, the ugliest ever created.

[@FireWarrior2013]

〈-- The face of a duck when you feed them bread. But beautiful in its own way I feel.

[@charleslipscomb284]

I think its a good looking plane The starfighter is ugly

[@OlaftheGreat]

Why y'all disrespecting my favorite plane?

[@ROG-ht5cz]

1:25 "This is the biggest scratch build I have ever seen!" Then Peter came along...

[@JPBTVA]

exactly

[@TurtleClashersRBLXPRO]

the he made a real plane

[@godzzila]

@jish Then he made a better plane.

Best episode yet! Great job guys.

[@njd834]

At the beginning you can actually see Josh testing out some early Flutag designs.

[@guy_incognito7538]

*feels wind...* *throws cinderblock...* *looks at each other* "nope... doesn't fly..."

[@brianartillery]

I love the use of the phrase: "It was uncivilised". It makes the mind reel with possibilities of how a dart shaped airframe with a breezeblock attached can in any way be uncivilised. Then Josh Scott showed one to the camera, and it made me cry with laughter. It would definitely fly on a 'Roadrunner' cartoon, but anywhere else... 😄

[@MrFrankoliciousness]

M

[@snaproll94e]

High marks for the attempt! The plane flew in ground effect which is from ground level to an altitude of up to 1 1/2 x the wing span or in your case, 12 feet. This is a great video to demonstrate the phenomena. Unfortunately several full size planes are lost each year when they are overloaded, take off in ground effect and impact the ground because they couldn't climb out. Too bad it crashed, It might have flown with twice the power. An old aviation adage, an airplane flies on the wing and climbs on the prop, make sense?

[@tylerrobatin8286]

You should try to make an rc plane that can make a person fly

[@meh-87]

+Tyler Robatin Know anyone under 39 pounds?

[@kernelpanic2887]

+meh Yeah, a baby

[@silasleclair5801]

+meh watch their flying sled video

[@spencerpeters5129]

+slooth YT Those were mannequins.

[@portercarr7197]

PeterSripol did it. Accept it wasn’t RC.

[@MrShturck]

these guys are like the mythbusters of the rc aviation world

[@ryanwangk3985]

I like how every intro is different, keep up the good work!!!

[@MrBhargab123]

good experiment guys, you may be able to make a real one seater electric plane one day ? Good luck.

[@nayshreyashumrao6650]

yeah brother , what you said came true, peter sripol finally made one

[@MTJLT]

Truly a blast from the past. I like Bruno's idea (below) as a step toward a useful load-carrying aircraft.

[@hbunnie1120]

I really enjoyed how in the last few seconds you all were laughing as the plane looped and crash..... loved it.....

[@cloudsplitter24]

Very cool. Actually riblets is a term for small grooves on a surface for flow control in an attempt to reduce drag. Love the show!

[@hugo511]

Fun fact: The space shuttle was nicknamed the “flying brick” because of how badly it glided

[@Nandox7]

Looks to be tail heavy. Put some cement in the front. :)

[@WiperTF2]

You guys make awesome videos. The production quality is so high, and you are so informative and just fun to watch. Subscribed.

[@shoedler]

"The Cinder of Gravity" - lol

[@griff1119]

It’s crazy how much FliteTest has changed!

[@cactusmonster1441]

i thought it should have flown with 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 engines.

[@Cannontime]

Love to see a revisit of this in 2020 to see how your new techniques would change this build.

[@wartang]

Wow I've been watching you guys for 6 years now.

[@maximilianwatzelt9305]

I like the old videos with Josh Scott much more.... back to the roots!

[@jasonvaughn7934]

Like the Spuce Goose, ya did get airborne. Great Job!!!! :-)...Thanks for all the great videos !!!

[@delow5917]

Spruce Goose*?!

[@coeadaparada]

The problem seems to have been the wind shadow coming from the trees right in front. If you are correct and you launched 'into' the wind, those trees right in front would create a wind shadow. The bad part of it, is the rotor caused by these shadow. The rotor will push the plane down. These forces can't be ignored. I feel if you didn't have the tree rotor you might have been able to get a little higher...

[@chadkapper492]

Ground effect = wingspan (8 feet) It rose to approximately 20 feet. It could have continued it's accent, however Josh didn't feel comfortable enough to venture outside of the safe zone.

[@s_hietsch]

it flies like a brick

[@dollarbill6877]

Love the introduction with a guy running around in the background!!! Lol

[@ArcherAC3]

This is awesome. It's like something between Kerbal Space Program with Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts building system, but in real life. Just like I waste time doing various adjusts in my spacecrafts and airplanes at KSP, you guys do it in real life with real aerodynamics working. It's amazing!

[@jamessalski3725]

Best projects are born when you forget about physics.

[@Vbluguitar]

watch all the way to the end. That was the most classic "loop" I have ever seen. I was laughing so hard my wife yelled up to see if I was ok!

[@wamplertube]

Nice! on this one I actually Got a flight test commercial before the flight test video! Now that is good advertising!

[@notthistime605]

I love the fact that you guys have a Harvard painted in the Old South African Air force colours hanging on the wall at 02:02, including the yellow number of the aircraft. For the folks in the States, the we call the T-6 texan a harvard.

[@guy_incognito7538]

1:40 "the first attempt was josh bixlers idea" brings up a plane strapped to block barely even bigger than the brick itself "I didn't think it was gonna work. Not enough surface area in the wing... not enough power either, but ya know... he loves the hobby, gotta give it to 'em, he tried..."

[@mike1525]

The aircraft could only fly when in the ground effect zone due to the short stubby wings. A larger wingspan with a high aspect ratio would possibly allow it to gain altitude..

[@rlv4304]

Cool test. Looks like as soon as it got out of ground effect it started to sink. Thanks for these videos.

[@machdoggy]

That is very creative! I think it is good that you are trying to make all these different things fly.

[@stefanbachrodt7072]

LOL. You rock guys! Now convert her to a twin prop and she'll fly like a bat out of hell =D

[@badstiwrx]

F rocket motor once it leaves the ground, that would be a true test of how much thrust those rocket motors have, and a dang sweet video

[@kpopRC]

great job!

[@wilgarcia1]

LOLZ awesome. Fun Fact! NASA used to playfully call the the space shuttle a "flying brick" due to the ceramic tiles used as a heat shield.

[@MysteriousSteve1234]

+Ziggy Wiggy Also because the Space Shuttle flew like a brick on landing, with a Lift/Drag ratio of only 4.5, which is absolutely hideous for aircraft.

[@wtffinger]

yeah it is engineering wise the most complex aircraft and also one of the hardest to fly

[@Snagglepuss1952]

This is a totally mad idea and I love it to bits. Would have loved to see it with about 20% more power and possibly thin air dams on the wing tips. Please keep up the good "work". RC flying is for fun whether a serious model or something outrageous. A+++.

[@MrMyKidd]

"The Brixler" HAHAHAHA! I think I just pooped! You guys really know how to get the most fun out of what you do. Man, those GoPros are tough!

[@pagani8]

Very good video! Thanks for putting all the time and effort into these that you do!

[@haks_123]

how do they afford the amazing camera quality and professionalism with only 800k subs wth

[@olivergregory309]

This was made in 2011 as well

[@scootergrant8683]

"For a brick, he flew pretty good." - Sgt Johnson - Halo 2 (surprised no one made this reference)

[@joejtunes]

You couldn't make a better opening scene if you tried, great job!

[@robrechtcordemans3763]

now do a "when pigs fly" airplane

[@ROCKRATADVENTURETEAM]

Just don't use a real pig!

[@SweatyBooch420]

They finally did it bro! Only 2 years later haha

[@mcchicken3856]

Imagine you’re flying your drone in peace but a cinder block plane thing just rams into it and causes it to crash

[@jordanjohn8771]

Does anybody know what the funniest FliteTest video is? I'm sure this one's there too.

[@alex-ir9uq]

In my opinion, rocket plane. Not the shinden one, the one with david

[@salkeld17]

I truly laughed out loud on the blooper at the end. LOL LOL LOL LOL !!! So much fun!

[@antiquatedflatulence1607]

Some people said the F4 Phantom II was just a brick with really powerful engines which goes to prove, if you add enough thrust to something, anything can fly.

[@fimbulwinter-outdoor]

Just a small hack for anybody who builds a plane with wire-struts for the wings: Always put wires underneath the wings AND above. Especially if you are building a very light plane. Otherwise the wings can start to flap like a bird when hitting a breeze, this caused a crash once with one of my planes. By putting wires above the wings to a fixed carbon fiber rod in the fuselage, the wings get very stiff and stable. Just look at old planes like the Demoiselle or Bleriot XI

[@thefacelessmen2101]

No cider blocks were harmed during the making of this video.

[@enderman6777]

I feel so bad for Josh... his only role is comic relief and sponsor enounciation, while Bixler is that guy that does everything.

[@lifeisntboring]

Josh in the button down "talking about important stuff, Then he says M.I" Other josh immediately says "Mission Impossible"

[@jimcr120]

That was an excellent show guys! Everything seemed to be slightly different but better. This was a show that I could relate to because my son and I have projects too, but not that scale. What a fun show! I agree JB, just a little more lift will get you through the turn, though I noticed that the predecessor seemed to turn fairly well. Was the weight or power on this one less? If you fly the Bricksler again, pitching up w/ limited power = more drag and less lift perpendicular to the earth.

[@TeganBurns]

First think that came to mind when I saw the title was flying Lawsuit lol

[@spenzee1722]

Watching this in 2019

[@mikezoe3534]

3D Cinder Block Challenge!

[@derrickblackburn2062]

Awesome video. Im thinking it needs tons of power. Like two more wing props everything on a series parallel slightly overdriven by a volt or two. wings filled with lipos like real fuel.

[@robertoc6374]

Awesome job guys! Never thought I'd see the day a cinder block was a passenger on a scratch build. LMAO! How many sheets of foam in total to put this one together? Thanks for continuing to inspire.

[@rougeneon1997]

honestly I dont miss the dynamic betwenn both Joshs. Glad the bixler has remained

[@Xam11007]

Yeah that would be cool but what if they put some insanely large motor on like a generator motor? That would be awesome! Something like a 500cc motor... Probably not possible but it would still be really cool to watch.

[@ianking.5721]

Should of put 2 more engines on the wings

[@charlesz5949]

True

[@hindiakoyan6891]

With a thousand kv each.

[@FlowersForYou629]

You guys should try to fly small Josh. That would be awesome. Just use a really long wingspan with a bunch of motors. It would be easy if you guys put effort into designing it. You would have to create a better support structure and thing like that but you guys should definitely do it.

[@coldhardwick]

I'm no expert, but I surmise that it would be better to use a gas powered plane rather than electric. I'm probably wrong, because I really don't know. But it just seems to me that you can get more power from a gas powered engine....

[@Mi3k15]

He means petrol. I own a petrol powered boomerang RC trainer. Lovely plane :)

[@ptw783]

Electric planes are much easier and cheaper to throw together

[@MrMaxymoo22]

I love the vid. I just wish you guys would show some more of the building and dev. stuff. Some people care about more than the maiden.

[@sneaky3685]

Remove the Cinder-Block and build his wight in batteries in. xD

[@itsabuscus1619]

Tonk'zockt FRIKKEN CAR BATTERIES!¡!¡!

[@sneaky3685]

Or a 170AH truck batterie :-)

[@FliteTest]

@jasser222 Total Flying Weight: 48 lbs (21.8 kg)

[@Ace12GA]

Revisit this one guys. This was great fun. More of this, but in the present.

[@DoktorSativa]

The blooper reel at the very end was the best. Question now is, what happened to the prop and the motor when it did a header into the ground? Great vid!

[@pokies100]

Drop the brick and fly the frame. Hi from New Zealand xjet territory

[@krang07]

next build: a flying cinder block made of foam. making it somewhat aerodynamic would be a little challenging I would think.

[@FliteTest]

@rcflight13 There are only two cops in our town... and neither one parks in my back yard. :) -Chad

[@G4m3G3ni3]

I love you guys SO much, thank you for this hilarious yet interresting project (And like always you try to make everythin affordable for everyone!) I hope to see something like that again in the future! (Maybe Ill try something like that myself ;D)

[@GRAHAMAUS]

Yes, going from something 90% efficient to something 20% efficient will surely make it perform better!

[@Its-Starlight788]

shout out to the flite test crew, like the camera man and the boom operator.

[@MFox0109]

I'd love to see this revisited. I wonder if one of those Agricultural Drone motors could lift it.

[@aesoft2009]

This is the coolest episode of all! Mythbusters infused! Good work to all of you! You're awesome!

[@Armoroid1]

Challenge: do this with a multi-rotor

[@BladeScraper]

wouldn't be hard I've seen 50lb of water carried with a octo.

[@gcr100]

this is the bes intro in all of your series¡¡¡

[@Vbluguitar]

lol, I like the background music... Its always hard with bgm because there is always someone who won't like your choice.

[@millerrc5829]

10:47 best part off the whole episode it's hilarious.

[@MrMyKidd]

Beef up the power plant, and resurrect it. Can't wait for the "Frankenbrick" episode ; )

[@UserName-us1nm]

Came for the brick, stayed for those laughs!

[@thatonedude-0]

Love that intro nope doesn't fly man LOL

[@blackbirdpie217]

The Wright brothers didn't consider getting off the ground was enough to declare success. Control is key and all you could do is hop. I'd rather make a flight out and back your benchmark of success.

[@MrFowl]

You guys should do a slow flight challenge. Make a scratch built plane, no cheating (harrier...etc). Any size, any material, whoever can fly in a straight line the slowest wins. Maybe do a full throttle race too (still whoever is slowest wins). You could then make a derivative of the plane as a slow stick and make it a nice park flyer trainer for beginners.

[@eatonwebdesigns]

Good video. I enjoy watching the shows but as a person that has never entered the hobby I would enjoy a bit more time spent on explaining the parts used and how they connect.

[@Infinity_Squared]

I would love to watch you guys fly that without the block!

[@adb012]

Josh, I've seen most of the Test Flite videos and I didn't expect to hear that from you: Afraid of the "downwind turn" myth? You would have lost no airspeed by turning downwind. Well, maybe you would, as with any other norn. But nothing special with downwind turns in terms of airspeed.

[@Allnos04]

Haha, that was just the coolest. Keep it up, the whole lot of you guys make a fantastic show.

[@ABID5]

I can't even fly a plane, and they're flying a cinder block !

[@aval1998]

try this again guys, with a glow motor since on takeoff and climb the climb rate actually depends on the thrust from the engine (ex. a airliner on final) pitch for speed thrust for altitude :D

[@infernal_pineapple5718]

I love the beginning !🤣

[@jeremycatches9766]

If you can fly a cinder block why not fly a go-cart battery with a really high maH rating?! I think if you went the multi-copter route and if you found the right battery you could have a multi that could sustain unusually long flight times. Anyway, GreaT Project guys! Big fan of your videos!

[@hunterross9615]

Jeremy Catches Your a genius

[@hunterross9615]

And I'm not being sarcastic