Military Gliders Are Making A Comeback, This Time In Unmanned Form

October 14, 2019 by Danie Conradie 33 Comments

Sun Tzu said, “The line between disorder and order lies in logistics.” This is as true in the modern world as it was 2500 years ago, and logistics have helped win and lose many wars and battles over the centuries. To this end, Logistical Gliders Inc. is developing one-time use, unmanned delivery gliders, for the US Military.

Reminiscent of the military gliders used in WW2, the gliders are designed to be dropped from a variety of aircraft, glide for up to 70 miles and deliver supplies to troops in the field. Specifically intended to be cheap enough to be abandoned after use, the gliders are constructed from plywood, a few aluminum parts for reinforcement and injection molded wing panels. There are two versions of the glider, both with huge payloads. The LG-1K, with a payload capacity of 700 lbs/320 kg and the larger LG-2K, with a payload capacity of 1,600 lbs/725 kg. Wings are folded parallel to the fuselage during transport and then open after release with the help of gas springs. The glider can either do a belly landing in an open area or deploy a parachute from the tail at low altitude to land on the crushable nose.

Gliders like these could be used to deliver supplies after natural disasters, or to remote locations where road travel is difficult or impossible while reducing the flight time required for conventional aircraft. Powered UAVs could even be used to carry/tow a glider to the required release point and then return much lighter and smaller, reducing the required fuel or batteries.

Drones are already used to deliver medical supplies in Rwanda and Ghana, and it’s possible to build your own autonomous unmanned glider. Check out the video after the break to see the big boys in action. Continue reading “Military Gliders Are Making A Comeback, This Time In Unmanned Form” →

A Modular Ecosystem That Evolved Around A Simple Diesel Engine

October 6, 2019 by Roger Cheng 20 Comments

High volume commodity products are a foundation of hacking, we’ve built many projects around popular form factors like NEMA 17 stepper motors, 608 bearings, and 280 DC motors. Their high volume led to lower cost, which further increased popularity, and the cycle repeats. A similar thing happened to a style of single-cylinder diesel engine in China, and [Jalopnik] takes us through an exploration of these “Tuo La Ji” (tractor) machines.

Like many popular standards, circumstances elevated this style of engine to become more popular than its peers. Judging from the pictures, the idea is similar to NEMA 17 in that the core essence is a bolt pattern and an output shaft. Different manufacturers offer various capabilities within this space, and a wild assortment of machinery evolved to take advantage of this class of power source.

It starts with a set of wheels and handlebars to create a walk-behind farm tractor, something pretty common around the world. But this particular ecosystem grew far beyond that to many other applications, including full sized trucks with off-road capability that would embarrass most of the genteel SUVs cruising our roads today. They may not be fast, but they only needed to be faster and have longer endurance than beasts of burden to be effective as “a horseless horse”.

Due to factors such as poor crash safety, absence of diesel emission controls, and affordability of more powerful (and faster!) vehicles, these machines are a dying breed. But that won’t change the fact there was a fantastic amount of mechanical hacking ingenuity that had sprung up around this versatile engine building simple and effective machines. Their creativity drew from the same well that fed into these Indonesian Vespas.

Photo by [Brian Holsclaw] CC BY-ND 2.0

Upgrades Give Crazy Cart XL A Few More X’s

October 6, 2019 by Kristina Panos 4 Comments

Why should kids have all the newfangled fun? They shouldn’t! Quarter-life crises are on the rise, and those who can are spoiling their inner child with adult-sized Heelys and electric Mario Karts that can drift. [austiwawa] finally got his hands on a used Crazy Cart XL, and while it’s incredibly fun, the puny 500W motor doesn’t quite satisfy his need for speed. A 3x power upgrade should do the trick.

The new 1600W motor is considerably bigger, so [austiwawa] had to grind off part of the front fork to make it fit. He designed a replacement motor support plate and had it cut from quarter-inch steel. Of course, you can’t just drop in a crazy new motor like that and go — you need a battery and controller to match. A couple of attempts and a new spot welder later, [austiwawa] built a 48V battery pack out of 18650s. The cart actually weighs less now, which should make the ride extra insane. Put a helmet on FFS and drift past the break to the build video and demo. Then watch him tear up the mean ~~streets~~ parking lots of Canada and take the kart off some sweet jumps.

We love a good fun-mobile around here, be it scratch-built or hacked OEM. This wasn’t even [austiwawa]’s first rodeo — check out his water-cooled electric drift trike.

Continue reading “Upgrades Give Crazy Cart XL A Few More X’s” →

Indonesian Jungle Vespas

October 4, 2019 by Sharon Lin 10 Comments

Typically, we associate Vespas with Italians, riding their posh scooters midday under the heat of the Mediterranean sun. In one community, however, the riders and vehicles are pretty different – and by that we mean a whole lot different. Think Mad Max: Fury Road meets The Jungle Book.

The first Vespa arrived in Indonesia in the 1960s when the vehicles were rewarded to Indonesian peacekeepers returning from a mission in Africa. While many of the Vespas on the archipelago maintain the same classic style, some riders have modified theirs into entirely new conceptions.

Indonesian photographer [Muhammad Fadli] captures these riders on their Vespa sampah (“garbage Vespa”) and Vespa gembel (“Vespa drifter”), as they are known by locals. The unique design of the riders is partially attributed to their emergence in the early 2000s coinciding with the fall of the Soeharto authoritarian regime. The newfound freedom and self expression, as well as the relaxed law enforcement, contributed to the development of new types of modified vehicles on the road.

While the scooters are widespread, there isn’t any known count of extreme Vespas in the country. Most of the Vespas are not meant for riding, but rather to show off their physical form. While some are made from cheap steel frames and tires, others are adorned with road scraps and symbols. Anything from buffalo skeletons to machine gun rounds are used to accentuate the design of the scooters, many of which have a punk or metal vibe.

Within the community, there are annual extreme Vespa gatherings, which can draw thousands of riders from all over Indonesia. From frames made of bamboo to frames made of garbage, stalls that collect recyclables to add to their vehicles, and riders from all walks of life, there’s no apparent limit to the builders’ creativity.

[Thanks edmonkey for the tip!]

What On Earth Is A Pickle Fork And Why Is It Adding To Boeing’s 737 Woes?

September 30, 2019 by Jenny List 88 Comments

It’s fair to say that 2019 has not been a good year for the aircraft manufacturer Boeing, as its new 737 MAX aircraft has been revealed to contain a software fault that could cause the aircraft to enter a dive and crash. Now stories are circulating of another issue with the 737, some of the so-called “Pickle forks” in the earlier 737NG aircraft have been found to develop cracks.

It’s a concerning story and there are myriad theories surrounding its origin but it should also have a reassuring angle: the painstaking system of maintenance checks that underpins the aviation industry has worked as intended. This problem has been identified before any catastrophic failures have occurred. It’s not the story Boeing needs at the moment, but they and the regulators will no doubt be working hard to produce a new design and ensure that it is fitted to aircraft.

The Role of the Pickle Fork

For those of us who do not work in aviation though it presents a question: what on earth is a pickle fork? The coverage of the story tells us it’s something to do with attaching the wing to the fuselage, but without a handy 737 to open up and take a look at we’re none the wiser.

Fortunately there’s a comprehensive description of one along with a review of wing attachment technologies from Boeing themselves, and it can be found in one of their patents. US9399508B2 is concerned with an active suspension system for wing-fuselage mounts and is a fascinating read in itself, but the part we are concerned with is a description of existing wing fixtures on page 12 of the patent PDF.

A cross-section of the aircraft wing fixing, in which we've highlighted the role of the pickle forks. (Boeing) — A cross-section of the aircraft wing fixing, in which we’ve highlighted the role of the pickle forks. (Boeing)

The pickle fork is an assembly so named because of its resemblance to the kitchen utensil, which attaches firmly to each side of the fuselage and has two prongs that extend below it where they are attached to the wing spar.

For the curious engineer with no aviation experience the question is further answered by the patent’s figure 2, which provides a handy cross-section. The other wing attachment they discuss involves the use of pins, leading to the point of the patented invention. Conventional wing fixings transmit the forces from the wing to the fuselage as a rigid unit, requiring the fuselage to be substantial enough to handle those forces and presenting a problem for designers of larger aircraft. The active suspension system is designed to mitigate this, and we’d be fascinated to hear from any readers in the comments who might be able to tell us more.

We think it’s empowering that a science-minded general public can look more deeply at a component singled out in a news report by digging into the explanation in the Boeing patent. We don’t envy the Boeing engineers in their task as they work to produce a replacement, and we hope to hear of their solution as it appears.

[via Hacker News]

[Header image: AMX Boeing 737 XA-PAM by Jean-Philippe Boulet CC-BY 3.0]

Steam Bike Rocks It Old-School

September 20, 2019 by Lewin Day 22 Comments

Petrol engines dominate the world of the automobile, while electric propulsion races to take an ever larger market share. Despite this, some still hold a flame for steam power. Such aficionados would hold this build in high regard, from the recent past of 2014.

The bike is of a recumbent design, featuring a relaxed riding position well suited to the sophisticated nature of a steam-powered vehicle. Sporting a wooden frame, the build carries a strong steampunk aesthetic. The flash boiler packs 100 feet of copper pipe, and there’s an electric pump and controller to handle water delivery from the stylish brass tank. The setup is capable of producing steam within 30 seconds of startup. Motive power is courtesy of a 1.5 inch bore single-cylinder steam engine, connected to the rear wheel via a belt drive.

There’s something intoxicating about the sounds and smells of a working steam engine, though the threat of catastrophic burns does temper the excitement just a touch. Steam power isn’t going away any time soon – and it’s not just limited to transport applications, either. Video after the break.

Continue reading “Steam Bike Rocks It Old-School” →

Monster Bush Plane Is A One-Off Engineering Masterpiece

September 15, 2019 by Danie Conradie 36 Comments

All of us dream of reaching a point in life where we have the knowledge, skills, energy and resources to pull off builds that match our wildest dreams. [Mike Patey] is living that dream and with a passion for engineering and aviation that is absolutely infectious, he built Draco, the world’s most badass bush plane.

Draco started life as a PZL-104MA Wilga 2000, which already had impressive short take off and landing (STOL) capabilities for a 4 seater. Its original 300 hp Lycoming piston engine failed catastrophically in 2017, very nearly dumping [Mike] in Lake Utah. He decided it was a good excuse to start building his dream plane, and replaced the motor with a Pratt & Whitney PT6 turboprop engine, putting out a massive 680 hp.

Almost the entire plane was upgraded, and the engineering that went into it is awe-inspiring, especially considering that [Mike] did most of it himself. This includes a redesigned fuel system, enlarged wing and control surfaces, new avionics, oxygen system, upgraded landing gear and an array of lights. The wing tip landing lights are actually from a Boeing 737. [Mike] estimates that the upgrades cost somewhere in the region of a million US dollars. All the highlights of the build is documented in series of videos on [Mike]’s YouTube channel. What we would give for a personal workshop like that…

Try not to let your jaw hit the floor when watching the video after the break.

Continue reading “Monster Bush Plane Is A One-Off Engineering Masterpiece” →