Here is an on-board video of Mike Whittaker's MW9 Plank in flight, with me at the controls for the first time, at New Farm Piddington. It was a short 15-minute flight to assess the handling. We stopped there because of the gusting crosswind, and we ran out of time, having waited in vain for it to abate.
It flew very well and felt like a normal SSDR, with none of the problems usually associated with flying wings. Directional stability in yaw was good and there was no tendency for it to develop a pilot induced oscillation in pitch. This can happen because the pitch inertia is lower than a conventional layout, and there is no damping from a tailplane on a long moment arm.
Stick fixed stability is good in all axes and there are no vices apparent yet.
More investigation needs to be done once the pitch trim is sorted out. At the moment a constant backforce of around 1 kg (10 Newtons), is needed. We can then investigate stick free stability.
We hope to do that in the next couple of weeks at New Farm again.
8 сен 2024
