Jet Powered Glider from Germany

team_skyflash

team_skyflash

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
Dec 27, 2012
Messages
13
Location
Hanover, Germany
Display Name
Display name:
team_skyflash
Hi everybody,

this is Fritz from germany. Our team is currently building the first prototype of a jet powered, manned microplane. We call it "Skyflash". You can find daily updates, pictures and more at our website and on facebook:
http://www.skyflash.org/Slideshow/Home-English/home-english.html
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Skyflash-Int/502971813056201

We started our project five years ago. Through some prototypes and models we came to the first real Skyflash airplane that is currently under construction. Our goal is total freedom of flight without large structures or anything around you. It should feel just like the wings are a part of your body.
But, unlike a lot of skydivers, wingsuits or stuff like that, we will have a landing gear, a regular powerplant and easy, self-stable, controlability.
The plane will be powered by two 80hp jet turbines consuming 440gr/min of Diesel fuel. Wingspan is 3,40m and max. speed is planned at 200mph. Weight is typically around 250lbs including the pilot and everything else. The whole plane is controlled only by the movements of the pilot, just like a hangglider.

Our first roll and stability tests have been captured and uploaded to youtube =)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQpDz-0UPCw

I´d be glad to post our status and more information here if you like our project! We hope to manage our first flight in the first or second quarter 2013.

Best regards from germany!
 
Last edited:
Czechs made quite a revolution with the T-100 turbine. Many conventional powered gliders use it now, as I heard, and now jet-powered EX-AB airplanes get popular enough for Sonex preparing to ship Subsonex kit.
 
I think I´ve seen at least one BD-5 equipped with a czech engine. But that´s of course another thrust-class than ours.

But even our little turbines - It´s incredible how powerful they are. Weighing just 3 pounds they put out 80hp and produce an incredible 140db sound.
Those affordable microjets are pretty much what lets us make the concept of the Skyflash reality...
 
Last edited:
Outstanding looking engineering evidence so far. Congrats.

The fuel burn is how much per engine at full throttle or for both? Can that engine burn gasoline effectively? 3 pounds weight per engine? Who makes those?

team_skyflash said:
Hi everybody,

this is Fritz from germany. Our team is currently building the first prototype of a jet powered, manned microplane. We call it "Skyflash". You can find daily updates, pictures and more at our website and on facebook:
http://www.skyflash.org/Slideshow/Home-English/home-english.html
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Skyflash-Int/502971813056201

We started our project five years ago. Through some prototypes and models we came to the first real Skyflash airplane that is currently under construction. Our goal is total freedom of flight without large structures or anything around you. It should feel just like the wings are a part of your body.
But, unlike a lot of skydivers, wingsuits or stuff like that, we will have a landing gear, a regular powerplant and easy, self-stable, controlability.
The plane will be powered by two 80hp jet turbines consuming 440gr/min of Diesel fuel. Wingspan is 3,40m and max. speed is planned at 200mph. Weight is typically around 250lbs including the pilot and everything else. The whole plane is controlled only by the movements of the pilot, just like a hangglider.

Our first roll and stability tests have been captured and uploaded to youtube =)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQpDz-0UPCw

I´d be glad to post our status and more information here if you like our project! We hope to manage our first flight in the first or second quarter 2013.

Best regards from germany!
Click to expand...
 
Thank you =)
The engines are made by G-Booster in germany. Each one burns 440gr/min Diesel at full throttle, but can also run on kerosene and petroleum. Exact weight of one turbine is 1,595kg.
We came to know them as very well engineered turbines. They start up very fast and totally on their own, and react very fine to the throttle.
We also worked together with the developer of the turbines to achive best possible fuel supply and power output.
 
Last edited:
The whole airframe has been put together for the very first time today!
Unfortunatly I can´t post pictures but you find them here on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.503294929690556.109801.502971813056201&type=3

Everything works as planned =) The wings match perfectly with their mountings in the wingbody and all deviations are less than 0,002 m.
Next part will be covering the first wings while the other team members are finishing those wings which still need to be glued and processed.
Our next goal is to have the covered plane prepared for "Roll-out" (if you´d like to call it like that although it doesn´t actually have wheels on it :wink2:) by the end of this year... (23:59 GMT, 31.12.)

Best regards
 
Last edited:
team_skyflash said:
Thank you =)
The engines are made by G-Booster in germany. Each one burns 440gr/min Diesel at full throttle, but can also run on kerosene and petroleum. Exact weight of one turbine is 1,595kg.
We came to know them as very well engineered turbines. They start up very fast and totally on their own, and react very fine to the throttle.
We also worked together with the developer of the turbines to achive best possible fuel supply and power output.
Click to expand...

When publishing in English, the "," is replaced with a "." for the decimal point. Slight matter I know but many will read that as over a ton and a half.;)
 
team_skyflash said:
Thank you =)
The engines are made by G-Booster in germany. Each one burns 440gr/min Diesel at full throttle, but can also run on kerosene and petroleum. Exact weight of one turbine is 1,595kg.
We came to know them as very well engineered turbines. They start up very fast and totally on their own, and react very fine to the throttle.
We also worked together with the developer of the turbines to achive best possible fuel supply and power output.
Click to expand...

When publishing in English, the "," is replaced with a "." for the decimal point. Slight matter I know but many will read that as one thousand five hundred ninty five kg the first time through, over a ton and a half.;)

The rig is cool though, what do the engines cost?
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the hint =)
With 1.5tons of thrust there would be no need for wings - in fact we would have build a pretty crazy space rocket :p

Regarding your question, each engine costs about 3000$.
 
Last edited:
Our pilot has been coupled with his plane for the very first time! He is mentioning a very good stability and controlability.
"I feel like I have finally spread the wings I always wanted to have" :)

We will now build in the first engine again to continue with rolling tests of the gamma-phase. This includes moving with several speeds including the lift-off speed without mounted V-Tail so that the plane won´t climb. Slight hovering/bumping above the ground is the target of this phase.

Our website has also been updated with new pictures and more. Visit us there =)
 
We finally reached the status were we could perform the very first taxi-runs. During calm weather and low winds we were able to reach 31mph without any problems. Controlability and stability is better than we could hope and I really had to work a bit to prevent the plane from hovering. The drive had been reworked a bit and should be able to work on gras-runways and up to 100mph without problems.
Weight is finally measured before the runs at 119kg or about 260lb including about one gallon of diesel and everything needed to fly. Because we still have only one engine installed (second one is finally in delivery by now) the plane has a steering to the right which I had to cope with (You can see that with increasing speed in the helmet-camera view). But that wasn´t really a problem.

My first impression is that we have a very managable and stable concept until yet. We can assume that, given a tendency to hover up without pilots interaction at 31mph with low AOA, the predicted V1 speed of 35mph will be realistic. Our predicted weight of 286lb will also be no problem even with more fuel and a second engine inside the plane :)

Here you can find our videos from those latest tests:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3-KMAyyE64
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpvhO2BdRyA

Best regards from germany!
 
Thank you! We try to do our best :)

Today we reached our next milestone with the first high-speed taxi runs at good weather an in low winds.
You can find the video and further information on our website: http://www.skyflash.org

Or just the video directly on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k9-UCQULqE

We hope to be able to continue soon with the mounting of the second engine. Results from todays tests will be put on our website tomorrow-

Best regards!
 
Because the winter in Germany is keeping us inside most of the time, we managed to build in the second engine. First runs proofed the concept -

Over the last weeks we made an entertaining TV-report together with the Discovery Channel. It contains technical data and some action. To test the engines we used the wingbody as snowblower for the TV. Everything works perfectly, even in temperatures near 0°F.
Here´s the TV report:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yELa2LvRFgs

Next tests are to come as soon as the snow will be gone here...
 
If he would have propelled himself up the hill on the sled I mave have been impressed a bit more.
 
Finally it´s done. We got all four wheels up in the air. Even though it were just a few centimeters above the grass at 55kph our brand new wing-camera was able to shoot everything.
Now that the 'First Hop' is done it still is some way to go for the first flight but were one step closer. And for my opinion it´s quite a big step =)

Watch our First Hop video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv-GJngJUD8

I hope that the video can transfer at least an idea of the incredible experience it is to fly this plane and feel your body hovering up, jumping from bump to bump!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top