Fan-Wing aircraft

Weaver

Weaver

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One of Modern Mechanix's famous flights of fancy, but it says it's based on real research done into the "Magnus Effect", and mentions Anton Flettner, who built real stuff that really worked, so how much research was really done on this , and what did they find out?


http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/05/15/spinning-wing-airliner/
 
Re: Spinning Wing Airliner

See this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flettner_ship
 
Re: Spinning Wing Airliner

http://www.fanwing.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkT4-Q7LGPQ
 
Re: Spinning Wing Airliner

http://www.fanwing.com/
Click to expand...

interesting. from a quick skim read of the site, seems like a candidate for the JCALS mission, mind you, it suffers from a major case of NIH syndrome, :-[ :mad:

cheers,
Robin.
 
Should be called the ‘combine harvester wing’ or ‘hair roller wing’...
 
Fanwing concept flight model (and a language question... Gaelic?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asJqvrikQSA#

Actually it is a fairly old concept... goes back to at least the 30's. But this may be the most advanced/successful demo model to date.

My question: what *the* *hell* is the reporterette saying at beginning and end of her report? At the beginning, right after "thank you very much" she says something that sounds like she has a mouthful of marbles. Then at 7 seconds in she says "good morning, bowler da" or some such. And right at the end, her very last words are in Elvish or something... Curiosity abounds.
 
Re: Fanwing concept flight model (and a language question... Gaelic?)

:D :D :D :D :D :D

Beat me to the punch Paul!

It's Welsh (I think....) given that Aberporth is in Wales

Haven't a clue what she's saying though. The Welsh language has been impenetrable to outsiders since the terrible vowel drought of '37.....
 
Re: Fanwing concept flight model (and a language question... Gaelic?)

overscan said:
She's speaking Welsh. Welsh people do that sometimes.
Click to expand...

Ah. I knew I recognized that gibberish from *somewhere....*

Welshie.png

"I am very drunk."
 
Re: Fanwing concept flight model (and a language question... Gaelic?)

Overkiller said:
The Welsh language has been impenetrable to outsiders since the terrible vowel drought of '37.....
Click to expand...

Heh. The few bits of Welsh I've heard spoken, I would be hard pressed to even comprehend the *sounds.* I'm *terrible* with foreign languages (I've tried French, Spanish, German and FORTRAN, all disastrous failures), but I can usually at least figure out how to mimic the sounds. But Welsh... it's like it tastes purple.
 
Re: Fanwing concept flight model (and a language question... Gaelic?)

Anyway, the fanwing has some relationship to the cycloid wings of the 30's:
mmx10-34.jpg


And the Lockheed "Omega" cargo lifter of the late '70's/early '80's used a transverse fan embedded in the wing for lift and propulsion:
 

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Re: Fanwing concept flight model (and a language question... Gaelic?)

How does it work, is not basically a helicopter with their blades rotation in different arrange?, or is some kind of air pump, the concept is interesting, but not sure if is basically an helo

I think i got it better, i think the concept of the 30s is not the same, i guess (not sure), the fanwing works accelerating the relative flow speed on the inner-upper surface of the "tube", i guess is actually different than a helo, still with some doubts, the concept is new for me
 
Re: Fanwing concept flight model (and a language question... Gaelic?)

The fanwing website has some explanation on the concept. It uses the squirrel cage fan for both lift and propulsion. Control in roll is achieved by spoiling lift on one side using a hinged flap on the front of the fan leading edge.

www.fanwing.com

in particular there is an "articles" section that has a lot of clippings with diagrams.

Compared to some of the concepts posted by Scott, the Fanwing's fan blades have fixed pitch.
That Lockheed Omega is new to me...and interesting. Any more information on the concept or a patent?
Thanks!
 
Re: Fanwing concept flight model (and a language question... Gaelic?)

There appears to be a difference between the cycloidal propulsion and the Fanwing, at least according to the link below.

http://rotoplan.narod.ru/history_e.htm
 
Re: Fanwing concept flight model (and a language question... Gaelic?)

AeroFranz said:
That Lockheed Omega is new to me...and interesting. Any more information on the concept or a patent?
Click to expand...

The aircraft configuration was granted a design patent. I've not found any propulsion system patents, but I haven;t really looked. A few AIAA papers, though.

Test of a high efficiency transverse fan
HANCOCK, J. P., Lockheed-Georgia Co., Marietta, Ga.
AIAA-1980-1243


Advanced Civil Military Aircraft - Technical feasibility assessment
BROWN, S. L., USAF, Wright Aeronautical Laboratories, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH; ESTILL, G. T., USAF, Wright Aeronautical Laboratories, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH
AIAA-1983-1592
 

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Re: Fanwing concept flight model (and a language question... Gaelic?)

amsci99 said:
There appears to be a difference between the cycloidal propulsion and the Fanwing, at least according to the link below.

http://rotoplan.narod.ru/history_e.htm
Click to expand...

"Cycloidal propeller was patented by prof. Frederick Kurt Kirsten in the beginning of 1920th. The idea was supported by William Boeing. Have begun with a water propeller. Tests of a vessel model have passed successfully, but further business has failed, and Kirsten has sold the patents to Voith-Schneider Corp."

I was about to point out the similarity between naval Voith-Schneider propulsors and the Cycloplane's wings...
 
Re: Fanwing concept flight model (and a language question... Gaelic?)

Thanks for the references!
 
Re: Fanwing concept flight model (and a language question... Gaelic?)

Trident said:
I was about to point out the similarity between naval Voith-Schneider propulsors and the Cycloplane's wings...
Click to expand...

Ahem... http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,2837.0/highlight,cyclogyro.html ;)

Regards & all,

Thomas L. Nielsen
Denmark
 
Re: Fanwing concept flight model (and a language question... Gaelic?)

Quite, but I don't visit the early projects section except by clicking on it by accident, so I beg your pardon ;)
 
AirInternational N°2 2012 has an article about the FanWing designs made by Patrick Peebles,
director of the FanWng Ltd. Could be a very interesting concept indeed, if the claims made by
this company will prove to be realistic. The layout has changed since the first presentation, from
a conventional fuselage with a T-tail, to a kind of twin-boom aircraft, with the booms at the tips
of the wing. From what is said in the above mentioned article, the FanWing could be a candidate
for the "The Best "Possible" STOSL Aircraft: Lets design it" thread (http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,14200.0.html),
thread.
Nevertheless, still yet only small scale models were actually flown and since the thrust-augmented
wing concept, I'll remain a little bit sceptical about such predictions, at least until a full scale demonstrator
will take to the air.
 
Re: FanWing aircraft

Re the fan wing, I saw it fly at one of the Parc Aberporth UAS events some years ago. I can't comment on efficiency etc but it certainly did STOL OK and appeared to be adequately controllable. It was only an early prototype so maybe this isn't a fair criticism but one area that I felt did let them down somewhat was the quality of their engineering.
 
Re: Fanwing concept flight model (and a language question... Gaelic?)

Some pictures of the FanWing flying test models, from a company document:
 

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Re: Fanwing concept flight model (and a language question... Gaelic?)

Future applications of the FanWing system on manned aircraft, from the same document:
 

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I think the Fan-Wing concept is particular enough to keep it separated from the more generic Cyclogyros.
 
The answer may lay in Tridents post from 19th of March 2009. The Cyclogyros uses articulated
rotor blades, whereas those in the fanwing generally seems to be fixed.
 
yeah, assuming you used one engine per side. I guess if you used a single engine to power both wing fans, then you would maintain symmetrical conditions no matter what (even in the event of engine failure, at which point there is no asymmetry but no lift either!)
 
"The FanWing has two engines for redundancy. One engine can keep the aircraft in the air and give it the power to climb. But if the worst happens pilots can autorotate down with a glide ratio of about 3:1. Peebles likes to say the FanWing is similar to a helicopter but with a much simpler drive train."

from:
http://www.aopa.org/aircraft/articles/2011/111122could-fanwing-go-from-lsa-to-heavy-lifter.html?WT.mc_id=&wtmcid;&WT.mc_sect=tts


In the Ultraligth the engines are in the wing tips.


BTW I understand they're are just a draft for a presentation, but I was wondering about the engine in the Cargo Lift project, they look to me a some kind of jet but I don't see any exhaust.
 

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Alcides said:
BTW I understand they're are just a draft for a presentation, but I was wondering about the engine in the Cargo Lift project, they look to me a some kind of jet but I don't see any exhaust.
Click to expand...

The engines exhaust is at the top of the center pod that houses them. You can see the two exahusts in the images quite clearly.
 
Theoretically this concept provides very short take-off capabilities, and as seen in the cargo plane concept, a *very credible* thrust to haul loads on board.

Would it be possible to:

1.- thrust-wise, tilt wings leading-edge upwards to create a VTOL aircraft?

2.- based on this fan-art from user Planeman (a brilliant and very prolific graphics artist) elsewhere in the ´net, Would a concept like this generate sufficient power to lift a small fighter?

Edit:
3.- Is D-Dalus also practicable? I mean, I see in these concepts no "duct-loss" like other V/Stol concepts, but I worry about the volume of cold air needed to provide lift

Note: Mods, if this post is more appropriate for other topic, please feel free to move it, since I believe I am mixin fan wing with fan-in-wing and fan-in-fuselage concepts
 

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Rafael said:
2.- based on this fan-art from user Planeman (a brilliant and very prolific graphics artist) elsewhere in the ´net, Would a concept like this generate sufficient power to lift a small fighter?
Click to expand...

It seems unlikely. Note that in the "official" renderings, the fan-in-wing system is *huge* compared to an equivalent conventional propeller, turbofan or turboprop system. So it would seem that the thrust per *size* of the fan is fairly small.
 

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It would appear that the Flettner rotor wing and Magnus effect are discussed both in this topic and the Cyclogyros one. It would be more coherent to treat these separately as their principle somewhat differs from cyclogyro and paddle-wheel types, don't you agree, mods?
 
As far as I can tell, the concept this thread is based on is simply about aircraft using a transverse/tangential/cross-flow/tubular fan (pick your favourite name for it) to induce flow across the wing (or across a flap/other control surface).

This is distinct from cyclogyros which have articulated blades and which can generate lift without an accompanying wing (as I understand it). It is most certainly distinct from the Magnus effect/Flettner wing.

Basically, I agree with Stargazer.
 

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