Congratulations on the maiden !!! The finished plane looks great. Nice job on the wing tip and the railroad engineering in the blue carpet photo.

Thank's Kent! The railroad is an engeneering project of my sons (4 and 6 years old); too dificult for me

Flight testing any prototype always provides some surprises...especially true of Hortens. Everything has to be just right or you'll have many MANY surprises. At least that has been my experience. [...] Although I've manage to fly a couple of different Horten style ships, it always amazes me to see a new design fly.

Yep, me too. I was this time very curious about the airfoil family I used. It was the first time applied in a model and it could have gone wrong despite of my simulations. This airfoil feels really interesting. This small ship has a quiet good penetration speed, despite of having a low wing loading of about 30-40 g/m². We did some flight testing at that time, including a failed aerotow attempt:

Testing the H-Ic (3 min 57 sec)

Did you happen to shoot a video of the recent maiden?

Yes, there is a more recent video with skid. But I have not gone flying since November last year.

Horten Ib in 1:8 (2 min 4 sec)

BTW the video is full HD and can be played in fullscreen

It took us from the first day I started with simulations to the first maiden about two months. Fast, considering that we had not even a design or any kind of plans

Cheers
Andrés

Time for the skid and canopy...

Without a skid it was very hard to keep the wing in hands for bunge launching (a helper was requiered). We hoped to be able to aerotow more easily too. Anywoay, the original Ib has a skid and I like the looks. We used the original hook positions to fix the three layered skid: 3mm ply in the center and 10mm balsa on the sides. The skid was glue with cotton thickened 5 min epoxy.

I also made the postive for the clear canopy by sanding the piece further, covering it with 80g/m² twill tow glass fiber (24h epoxy) and priming the piece several times. The canopy was deep-drawed using 0.7 mm Vivak heated in the oven at about 150 C until ready (can't explain when it's ready, you just have to feel it). I use my best socks on my hands when I do this to keep them save and to be able to touch the Vivak without leaving marks .

Wolfgang made me some self-adhesive markings (D-NIDA) of scale size. The adhesive markings are brushed over with the varnished a couple of time to cover and protect them.

Cheers
Andrés

After watching your flight videos again, I'm beginning to think that I have been flying my Hortens with a CG that is too aft. Mine have yaw instability and yours are on rails. Also, I regularly fly at minimum sink.

Thanks for the videos. I always learn something.

Kent

Any further flights with this?

Dear Stuart,

weather has been vary bad here in Germany since January. The winter does not want to end at all. At some places, there is still more than 10" of snow on the ground . The weather isn't that bad here in Heidelberg, and we had at last a couple of sunny days, but strong gusty winds have been blowing. So no weather for flying .

I hope the season starts soon

Cheers
Andrés

Originally Posted by andrecillo76

Dear Stuart,

weather has been vary bad here in Germany since January. The winter does not want to end at all. At some places, there is still more than 10" of snow on the ground . The weather isn't that bad here in Heidelberg, and we had at last a couple of sunny days, but strong gusty winds have been blowing. So no weather for flying .

I hope the season starts soon

Cheers
Andrés

Same story over here.The jet stream has done the loop again,really cold east winds.Brrrrr