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White Dwarf (dirigible)
The White Dwarf is a human-powered dirigible built in 1984 that set several world records. Development The ''White Dwarf'' was commissioned and funded by comedian Gallagher, whose interest in airships was sparked by a radio-controlled flying watermelon prop he used in his stage act. It was constructed by Bill Watson, who was part of the team that built the ''Gossamer Albatross'' human-powered craft. Design The dirigible features a teardrop-shaped lift bag. The aluminum fuselage is a truss design with a single pilot seat on top with a chain-driven pusher propeller, 64 inches in length, positioned in front of a rudder. It weighs . Operational history The ''White Dwarf'' set several world records with pilot (and engine) Bryan Allen. It was flown a distance of in 8 hours and 50 minutes. Specifications (White Dwarf) References {{reflist, refs= {{cite journal, journal=Air and Space Magazine, title=Who Is Bryan Allen?, author1=Sugar, James , author2=Stephan Wilkinson , name- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WikiProject Aircraft
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is an affinity group for contributors with shared goals within the Wikimedia movement. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within Wikimedia project, sibling projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS News noted the role of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine in maintaining the accuracy of articles related to the disease. Another WikiProject that has drawn attention is WikiProject Women Scientists, which was profiled by ''Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian'' for its efforts to improve coverage of women scientists which the profile noted had "helped increase the number of female scientists on Wikipedia from around 1,600 to over 5,000". On Wikipedia Some Wikipedia WikiProjects are substantial enough to engage in cooperative activities with outsi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pusher Configuration
In aeronautical and naval engineering, pusher configuration is the term used to describe a drivetrain of air- or watercraft with propulsion device(s) after the engine(s). This is in contrast to the more conventional tractor configuration, which places them in front. Though the term is most commonly applied to aircraft, its most ubiquitous propeller example is a common outboard motor for a small boat. “Pusher configuration” describes the specific (propeller or ducted fan) thrust device attached to a craft, either aerostats (airship) or aerodynes (aircraft, WIG, paramotor, rotorcraft) or others types such as hovercraft, airboats, and propeller-driven snowmobiles. History The rubber-powered "Planophore", designed by Alphonse Pénaud in 1871, was an early successful model aircraft with a pusher propeller. Many early aircraft (especially biplanes) were "pushers", including the Wright Flyer (1903), the Santos-Dumont 14-bis (1906), the Voisin-Farman I (1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Human-powered Aircraft
A human-powered aircraft (HPA) is an aircraft belonging to the class of vehicles known as human-powered transport. As its name suggests, HPAs have the pilot not only steer, but power the aircraft (usually propeller-driven) by means of a system similar to a bicycle or tricycle: a pair of pedals, moved by the pilot's feet that turns a gear, which then moves a bicycle chain, which then rotates a smaller gear, which turns a vertical shaft that either turns a set of bevel gears, which turns another, horizontal shaft that ultimately turns a propeller, or in the case of earlier prototypes, an ornithopter mechanism. Often, a hybrid system is used; where during a certain amount of time pedaling, it would charge a battery, which would, at the push of a button, power an electric motor that is connected to the same horizontal shaft as the propeller. Human-powered aircraft have been successfully flown over considerable distances. However, they are still primarily constructed as engineer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homebuilt Aircraft
Homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch", from plans, or from assembly kits.Armstrong, Kenneth: ''Choosing Your Homebuilt - the one you will finish and fly! Second Edition'', pp. 39–52. Butterfield Press, 1993. Peter M Bowers: ''Guide to Homebuilts - Ninth Edition''. TAB Books, Blue Ridge Summit PA, 1984. Overview In the United States, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, homebuilt aircraft may be licensed Experimental aircraft, Experimental under Federal Aviation Administration, FAA or similar local regulations. With some limitations, the builder(s) of the aircraft must have done it for their own education and recreation rather than for profit. In the U.S., the primary builder can also apply for a repairman's certificate for that airframe. The repairman's certificate allows the holder to perform and sign off on m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Airships
An airship, dirigible balloon or dirigible is a type of aerostat (lighter-than-air) aircraft that can navigate through the air flying under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air to achieve the lift needed to stay airborne. In early dirigibles, the lifting gas used was hydrogen, due to its high lifting capacity and ready availability, but the inherent flammability led to several fatal accidents that rendered hydrogen airships obsolete. The alternative lifting gas, helium gas is not flammable, but is rare and relatively expensive. Significant amounts were first discovered in the United States and for a while helium was only available for airship usage in North America. Most airships built since the 1960s have used helium, though some have used hot air. The envelope of an airship may form the gasbag, or it may contain a number of gas-filled cells. An airship also has engines, crew, and optionally also payload acc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UConn Lumpy
The UConn ''Lumpy'' was a blimp designed, built, and flown by students at the University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ... in 1975. Design and development The airship was built by five University of Connecticut engineering students as part of their Engineering Design Project class at the university, with Associate Professor Kurt Marshke acting as their faculty advisor. As part of the process, the students built a proof-of-concept model, to vet the design and the control mechanisms. The gondola was made from aluminum tubing, with the pilot located near the front and the engine sited towards the rear. The envelope was sewn together using green surplus government issue parachutes, and contained three diameter weather balloons filled with heli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The White Diamond
''The White Diamond'' is a 2004 documentary film by Werner Herzog. It illustrates the history of aviation and depicts the struggles and triumphs of Graham Dorrington, an aeronautical engineer, who has designed and built a teardrop-shaped airship which he plans to fly over the forest canopies of Guyana. It features music composed by Ernst Reijseger, which was re-used in Herzog's 2005 film '' The Wild Blue Yonder''. Most of the film focuses on Dorrington's flights near Kaieteur Falls, in Guyana. Dorrington discusses the mechanics of his flight, as well as his own struggles with uncertainty and the "heaviness" he feels after the death of the cinematographer Dieter Plage. The film also explores the Kaieteur Falls themselves, a local man named Marc Anthony Yhap, a diamond miner, and the white-tipped swifts (''Aeronautes montivagus'') which roost in an inaccessible cave behind the falls. The film holds a score of 83 (based on 12 reviews) on the film review aggregator website Meta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bryan Allen (hang Glider)
Bryan Lewis Allen (born October 13, 1952) is an American self-taught hang glider pilot and cyclist. He achieved fame when he piloted (and provided the human power for) the two aircraft that won the first two Kremer prizes for human-powered flight: the ''Gossamer Condor'' (1977; the first human-powered aircraft that met the specified criteria of the first Kremer prize) and ''Gossamer Albatross'' (1979; the first human-powered aircraft to cross the English Channel). He later set world distance and duration records in a small pedal-powered blimp named "White Dwarf." Biography Allen graduated from Tulare Union High School in Tulare, California. He then attended the College of the Sequoias, and Cal State Bakersfield. , he was employed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fuselage
The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a hardpoint, pylon attached to the fuselage, which in turn is used as a floating Hull (watercraft), hull. The fuselage also serves to position the Flight control surfaces, control and Stabilizer (aeronautics), stabilization surfaces in specific relationships to Wing, lifting surfaces, which is required for aircraft stability and maneuverability. Types of structures Truss structure This type of structure is still in use in many lightweight aircraft using welding, welded steel tube trusses. A box truss fuselage structure can also be built out of wood—often covered with plywood. Simple box structures may be rounded by the addition of supported lightweight strin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WikiProject Aircraft/page Content
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is an affinity group for contributors with shared goals within the Wikimedia movement. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within sibling projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS News noted the role of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine in maintaining the accuracy of articles related to the disease. Another WikiProject that has drawn attention is WikiProject Women Scientists, which was profiled by '' Smithsonian'' for its efforts to improve coverage of women scientists which the profile noted had "helped increase the number of female scientists on Wikipedia from around 1,600 to over 5,000". On Wikipedia Some Wikipedia WikiProjects are substantial enough to engage in cooperative activities with outside organizations relevant to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aluminum
Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has a great affinity towards oxygen, passivation (chemistry), forming a protective layer of aluminium oxide, oxide on the surface when exposed to air. It visually resembles silver, both in its color and in its great ability to reflect light. It is soft, magnetism, nonmagnetic, and ductility, ductile. It has one stable isotope, 27Al, which is highly abundant, making aluminium the abundance of the chemical elements, 12th-most abundant element in the universe. The radioactive decay, radioactivity of aluminium-26, 26Al leads to it being used in radiometric dating. Chemically, aluminium is a post-transition metal in the boron group; as is common for the group, aluminium forms compounds primarily in the +3 oxidation state. The aluminium cation Al3+ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
