Ornithopters

[inky00]

I have been working on an ornithopter for a while and was needing some help with the physics model.At present it has a silent engine to allow for extended flight as it will not generate enough lift with just the flapping wings.If anyone can help with this i would appreciate it as i am stuck as to what to try next.Please feel free to download the attached EA and have a go,if you have any luck just let me know and i will use the best variant for the swap pages.

 

[CanCanCase]

Wow Inky! "Ornithopter" is an awful big word to be tossing around here! I almost didn't read your thread, thinking it was a spambot generating random text... then I saw who started the thread...!

Interesting model, but all I can do is twiddle with it and ask anyone else for help!

-Case

 

[opjose]

Inky00 give me to the weekend on this one.

 

[opjose]

Ok, that was WAAAY too easy...

Inky00

I've seen many Ornithopters fly and the first thing that struck me was that the wing flap was far too low.

Change the wave period to .2 instead of .5 and it flies VERY nicely...

That's it!

 

[LDIZZLE]

fly birdie

i ABSOLUTELY LOVE this aircraft. Now I can finaly say "No, Its BOTH!" to the statement, "It's a bird! It's a plane!"

great work Inky00

 

[opjose]

Here's a quick edit fixing the wave periodicity and battery power to increase run times.

The throttle cut off isn't right though... ideally the periodicity SHOULD change with throttle and in this model it just stays the same...

 

[strongmankb]

Ornithopter Edit

Here is what I've come up with so far.

 

[strongmankb]

Thank You!

I can not tell you how much I have wanted an ornithopter in G3. Thank you so much for making this wonderful aircraft.

 

[jbourke]

Nicely done.

Jim

 

[CanCanCase]

I think I'll go create a new username over at RC Groups and troll around with something like "Gee, G3.5 has an ornithopter... can someone make me one for FS One or Reflex?"

-Case

 

[inky00]

Does anyone know whether it is possible to have proportional control over a wave generator? as i was wanting to have control over how fast the wings flap with the throttle.I have been trying but have yet to find a way so any help would be fantastic.

 

[opjose]

Good question...

I have a thought on this, but I'll need to try it first.

I'll let you know.

 

[gymo]

Nice work inky00, you keep beating me on getting new variants of the rc world out.

i've done an ornithopter but no where as neat as yours i've been trying to get the throttle controlled movement speed working for a while and the best i could do was a 3 stage throttle controled by the 3-way switch. But it should be possible to map this to the throttle..

what i did was to have wings joined to the fuslage by 3 symetrical moving pods controled by 3 seperate wave generaters
then by switching on one of the 3 would give a diffent speed

slow moving pod--->medium speed pod--->final pod fastest(wing)

hope i've made myself clear, it works in my head and i've kinda got it working in the sim but putting it on paper was never my strong point

Nigel

 

[opjose]

Well that was along the lines of what I was thinking, but using the throttle and triggered from a servo function...

 

[JimCunn]

"Ideally the periodicity SHOULD change with throttle and in this model it just stays the same..."

I know this is an old post, but why?

Animals usually hold the wingbeat frequency (periodicity) fairly constant and adjust the flapping amplitude to apply 'throttle'.

Were it me, I would use the Pennycuick equation to predict the beat frequency and have the throttle adjust the flapping amplitude.