New 4 wing Tango UAV

[Sky Link]

Looks like a new UAV called the Tango has just been released. It says it can stay in flight for up to 5 hours.

www.rctoys.com/tango-savs-popscipreview.html

[space_case]

It says it can stay in flight for up to 5 hours.\


I would be surprised. The airframe looks rather... inefficient.

[ManTin361]

And it only cost $10,000 for the RC version or $24,000 for the autonomous version acording to Pop. Sci.

Matt

[patrickegan]

Hmmm, wonder what sense and avoid system they could be using at that price point?

[Spete2000]

Hi All,

Is this plane designed to replace the Predator or scale Predator that I believe this company produces, or used to produce. The other Predator became unavaible about a year ago and I wondered about it's demise. I figure that it was such a good copy of the original Predator that the company was told to back off and give the other design a break. Or something. I guess if I didn't know better to what it was, it might cause some concern.

Or I might be really wrong. Probably all good sized UAVs / MAVs might have to pass some government criteria and I haven't been keeping up with the situation.

Anybody on the site be of some assistance?

Thanks,

Respects,

Steve

[patrickegan]

Not yet, but things are in the pipe. Check out RCAPA.net

[Sky Link]

Here is a short video that shows this new plane flying.

Windows Media
www.rctoys.com/embed/tango-water.wmv

Quicktime
www.rctoys.com/embed/tango-water.mov

[Spete2000]

Thanks for the movies.

There would be more, but I must have hit the Magic Delete button. I hate when I do that.

Respects,

Steve

[Sky Link]

Uhh, what does there would be more mean?

[Spete2000]

Hi Sky Link and All,

Sorry about that. I had written quite a bit of text, looked up momentarily, and Presto, no text. I know I did it but I couldn't figure out how to back out of where I was at, and just wanted to say Thank You.

I was talking about the Atlantic crossing of the model airplane about 2 years ago. It had about a 5 foot wing span. It used about an .60 glow engine converted to spark ignition. It also had a home made generator on the back of the engine driven by the back of the crankshaft, to supply power for the flight.

It had 1 aelieron, rudder, elevator and a special throttle that would insure fuel flow for the long distance. I think it was 1,300 miles. The AMA and the FAA blessed the flight although there was no detect and avoidance cicuitry. Human control occured at the start and finish of the flight, with gps guidance for the flight.

The uplink was lost before Europe, and the plane was thought downed. It did have a low power transmitter which was detected and the people remained to witness the arrival of the model. The GPS signal was working fine in orchestration with the rest of the circuityr except the European Shore couldn't follow the progress as the GPS locator was not getting signal from the plane.

In the last few minutes, (30 minutes?) the GPS signal was reaquired and the plane was finally found with optical equipment. In the last 5 minutes, control was again returned to the people on the shore. Actually Bob, (President of the AMA) landed the plane.

At first there was question if the Awards should be presented because a human was not in control of it 100% of the time. (This is Progress?)

That was about where I had left the first message when I saw the Magic Text.

Thanks again,

Respects,

Steve

[Sky Link]

Oh yes, you experienced the timeout feature. I have had that happen to me on other boards too. You type an epic and hit enter and then it goes to a screen that wants you to log in again. Then when you do that, all of your content is gone! :mad: What I trained myself to do is to always periodically hit Ctrl A to highlight all content and then Ctrl C to copy it into memory. You can also then hit Ctrl V to paste your latest version into another temporary document like a text file, e-mail or whatever to have as a backup. If you do ever accidentally hit delete after highlighting or whatever, just hit Ctrl Z and that will undo your last action and should bring back your content up to the last point. All of the described Ctrl functions apply to most documents. The Ctrl Z functions works in almost all applications. You could also just compose your content in a text file, document or e-mail and then cut/copy & paste it into the board's field. Another way to defeat a timeout on boards is to periodically do a preview to let the system know that you are still active. Aren't computers fun.

[Spete2000]

Hi Sky Link and All,

And, Thank You. Yes, I still think computers are fun even after starting to work on them in 1982? Actually, I started in 1964. Fortran 4. And that, I did hate. That was before Bill Gates and Steve Jobs heard of each other.

I used to like working on and around robots too. When I started to work on them for real, it did lose it's attractivness. Robots started to really gather strength in the 1980's. it started with about 450 manufacturers worldwide. then, as always, only the strong survive. Towards the end of the '80's, there was a total of about 45 robot compaies worldwide.

After a while, all of the employees started to know each other from the various US companies and it became interesting to watch the manufacturers dropping, one after another. Shortly, there were many Japanese and European manufacturers and very few American companies located in the USA. (Sounds like the automotive industries.) And a lot less robot engineers, salesmen, etc.

However, I will watch this site, as I think, that there is going to be a requirement for our kind of work. If we are in on the ground floor, sometimes there is an opportunity to make some income. And I just thought I wanted to look at it as part of my hobby(s). I really do like technology.

Oh, BTW, I see the smiles on the right of the site, but all that I can bring up is parentheses around the spelled word. Never did have any computer training. Or, at least not much.

Thanks again,

Respects,

Steve

[John O'Sullivan]

The trans-Atlantic flight was made by Maynard Hill, a totally awesome guy who has made major contributions to model aviation, having at various times held world record altitude, speed, distance and other records.
In The 70's he developed a model "electrostatic stabilizer" which used polonium radioactive sources as amplifiers on the wingtips and tail to detect and amplify the vertical gradient of the earth's magnetic field and stabilize the model. One interesting point was that in thunderstorm conditions, the electromagnetic gradient reversed, resulting in the model flying inverted. I consdered purchasing one of the systems for my cross country gliders but the price was a bit high.

When he made the flight from Cape Spear, Newfoundland, Canada, to Ireland he was technically blind. He had attempted the trip the previous year and had lost three models and the year he made it he had lost one. The skipped satellite transmission in combination with lower than expected tail winds, had caused a time extension which they feared would cause the motor to run out of fuel (as it happened the motor had leaned out and they landed with 2 ozs of fuel within 32 feet of the target)

It may be of interest that World records are verified by the international governing body (FAI) and not the AMA or FAA. These are US organizations and as the flight was made from Canada to Ireland the FAA and AMA had no juristiction over the flight other than the pilots belonged to the AMA. Somehow there seems to be a misconception that organizations like the AMA and FAA have juristiction outside the US.
True, the man who did it was American as was Dave (not Bob) Brown (AMA President) who landed it.
I am sure the saga has been recorded for posterity and as one who followed the live transmission of the flight I can say that it was a wonderful effort.
It was not the first model to cross the Atlantic, The Australian Aerosonde crossed from Newfoundland, Canada to Scotland earlier. However it was the first official "Aeromodel" to do so. An Aeromodel is a model aircraft fitting within the FAI model category which has a maximum weight of 5.0 kg (11 lbs) including fuel. Over half the weight of the model was fuel (naptha). These weight restrictions necessitated ultra lightweight model structures and was one of the main reason for the single aileron.
John O'Sullivan

[Spete2000]

Hi John and All,

Thanks for the corrections. If I had looked for my Model Aviation magazines I probably would have had it all correct. I hope there are no hard feelings as that was not the intention

Couldn't even remeber Dave's name. Oh well.

And, thanks for adding the rest of the story as well as I had forgotten much of it as you have noticed. Had I been aware of the live transmission, I would have loved to watch if nothing more than the start and the end.

You are correct that it was a small model that arrived late with worries of fuel shortage, and that it did land with 2 oz.s of fuel left in the tank. Had I been closer to the project, I probably would have recalled the particulars better.

Say, are you related to the world famous heavyweight boxer?

Thanks again,

Respects,

Steve

[John O'Sullivan]

No Steve, I'd rather fly than fight. Our side of the family were true blue cowards.
No hard feelings indeed, that's not what this forum is about. We all learn much every day from the varied contributors coming from varied backgrounds, each with a unique perspective.
A new idea or concept in the old days often was buried forever or took months and years to develop. With the ultra rapid data communications of the internet, ideas are conceived and developed almost overnight and we all benefit from it. We all can't be experts in all fields but have the opportunity to partake in a wonderful hobby. After 56 years model flying my learning rate has never been as rapid as it has over the past few years.

Good flying,
John
These are indeed the " Golden days of model flying".