{"id":10439,"date":"2015-10-03T13:52:55","date_gmt":"2015-10-03T20:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=10439"},"modified":"2015-10-03T13:52:55","modified_gmt":"2015-10-03T20:52:55","slug":"a-twin-motored-ultralight-flying-wing-its-the-new-millennium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/a-twin-motored-ultralight-flying-wing-its-the-new-millennium\/","title":{"rendered":"A Twin-Motored Ultralight Flying Wing – It’s the New Millennium"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Glassock, an Australian now living and working in Hungary, sent the links to YouTube videos of a Millennium hang glider<\/a>, neatly electrified and flown at this year\u2019s Santa Cruz Salt Flats Race.\u00a0 Richard has been a speaker at the Electric Aircraft Symposium with a talk on his efforts with small hybrid electric power systems for large-scale models and small aircraft.<\/p>\n

Steve Morris, co-designer of the Millennium along with Ilan Kroo, Brian Porter, Brian Robbins, and Erik Beckman helped develop this rigid-wing hang glider to offer a lighter, more portable version of Swift.\u00a0 Steve reported on his electric-powered Swift <\/a>at the 2010 Electric Aircraft Symposium.<\/p>\n

Ilan Kroo reflected on the idea of practical, powered ultralight sailplanes in his American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics paper <\/a>on the design of the Swift.\u00a0 \u201cWith refinements in aerodynamic control and composite structures, hang gliders will continue to evolve toward more soarable foot-launched sailplanes. If one does not constrain the designs to be able to be launched like hang gliders, much higher performance ultralight sailplanes are possible. If an acceptably reliable, convenient, and quiet propulsion technology becomes more practical, a self-launching very light sailplane may finally make Lilienthal\u2019s vision of routinely soaring like birds a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Morris performed an early test of this idea with his Millennium, mounting a Zenoah 20-horsepower two-stroke engine to his aircraft.\u00a0 As can be seen in the video, the machine has a tight turning radius, allowing one to \u201ccore\u201d even a small-diameter thermal.<\/p>\n