Ion 1950's Futuristic Flying Wing - Pt10: CG & How to Balance - By O.F.W. (Peter) Fisher

The Ion Mk 20 is a great looking flying wing from 1957, designed by O.F.W. Fisher and English designer and owner of Performance Kits. He was often known as Peter Fisher. The Ion has a 33" wingspan and was originally a free flight model powered by a Frog 80 diesel engine, however in this build it will be converted to 2 channel RC. The original design had elevons, used to give some reflex to the wing and they could be used to adjust the trim. In this build series these elevons will be servor controlled.
The plans for this build are available from Derick Scott at www.model-plans.co.uk/perform...
The link will takes you directly to where the plan listed, but you need to email the owner of the website, see details on the homepage, to get the plan. He provides a very good service.

[@homienat3374]

As much as i absolutely enjoy watching you work, and your ideas ,i cant wait for this flying wing to be finished ,looking forward to ya building the 1 behind you,all the best 🤙🤙

[@MarkRobinson555]

Thank you very much!

[@NormanLedoyen]

This was a great video Mark. I am excited to see how it balances out and the covering you put down.

[@MarkRobinson555]

Glad you enjoyed it, really appreciate the comment Norm

[@terryblackman6217]

What a great idea with the CG leg supports, it's so positive. That could be used on other models. I know I will be using this on a future models. I see that someone has put some other Peter Fisher plans on outerzone.

[@MarkRobinson555]

H Terry, thanks for the comment, pleased you like the idea. Yes, I have been cleaning up some old Peter Fisher plans and posting them to Outerzone. There is another one to go on soon, the Sun Duster 62" and a few more in the future. If you look at the accompanying text it says where they came from 😜

[@terryblackman6217]

Ah so your the culprit 😉👍

[@lyndontaylor4440]

I've used a piece of 4x2 before with 2 holes drilled to accept pencils with eraser tips to use for CG

[@rickharms1]

Grind the ends of the dowel to a point. You can use a pencil sharpener to center the point.

[@richard1472]

Finding the CG on a swept and tapered flying wing. Having never done this before, you have my attention. Let's see if it's what I think it is...

[@richard1472]

Okay, so we have a reference point. That helps a lot. But I couldn't help notice how neutral this design is, especially as it was originally a free-flight model. Without any inherent stability, finding the correct balance point can be very tricky. Proceed with caution. Who am I kidding? You got this, Mark.

[@RichardTapp1]

​@@richard1472 Flying wings have inherent stability through the use of reflexed airfoils.

[@RichardTapp1]

If you are content to balance the model with the nose wheel off the edge of your table as you are doing now, you could use shorter "legs". The "over toppling" effect would then be less. 🙂

[@MarkRobinson555]

@@RichardTapp1 good idea Richard, appreciate the suggestion. I did end up putting little feet on the legs which did help with the balance, making them a little more stable.

[@richard1472]

@@RichardTapp1 Yes, but those are dynamic forces. What we are doing here is a basic static balance test. Also, reflex doesn't do much for lateral stability. Washing out the wingtips would help here, don't you think?

[@ronaldrose6885]

Great idea on the balance legs .question, peter Fischer is he the o.f.w. peter Fischer from performance kits?

[@MarkRobinson555]

Thank you for the comment, pleased you like the idea. Yes it's designed by Peter Fisher from Performance Kits

[@tomrammel]

Mark, I love your videos but The disadvantage of having the balancing sticks not pivot at the wing makes the CG lower thus causing the CG to change as the model pivots forward or rearward.

[@MarkRobinson555]

Hi there, thanks for the comment and information, I need to think more about what you have said, but if the legs are vertical and the wing is in balance then the cg will be correct. In the end this will just be a guide and the real cg will be determined by test glides and finally the maiden flight. 😀