Flite Test - Articulating Fuselage - PROJECT

Flite Test - Articulating Fuselage - PROJECT

In this episode of Flite Test Josh and Josh show us a really cool project. Have you ever seen a plane with a tail that wiggles? Watch as they show us the articulating fuselage that they installed on the Gumby, all with HobbyKing parts!

What we used:

TGY-375DMG Metal gear Digital Servo

3mm Carbon Fiber Rod

Landing Gear Wheel Stop Set Collar

Horn Set - Suits HobbyKing Mi Servos

Metal Push Rods

[Firebird]

Chad, you are a freaking genius dude !! I liked the articulating fuselage that you made but using servo wheels as the guides... awesome!
Pure Inspiration, thanks guys !

[arfintr]

ah the good old Flite Test videos, so interesting and unique! We want more videos like this!!! 

[JFrazer]

I've had an idea for articulated tail.
For slow-speed & and high AoA during rotation & landing, you want a high tail Clean air means more authority at low speed, and it's not blanked by the wing's wake, while at very sensitive near-stall flight. For good cruise, you want low maybe even negative AoA, and lots of down-trim, which is a lot of drag applied to the tail.
If the tail articulated, then you'd have both. With the tail down, it's in the slip-sream of the wing, meaning it's not cutting clean air but also it's not cutting new air. Less drag, if it's not cutting new air, and since airspeed is higher, the tail can be mostly inside the wing's wake and still have effect for the more gradual maneivering it'd be doing at high speed.

[shade]

I absolutely love this idea, and I think they should revisit it and try to maybe slow down the servos so it flies smoother and maybe help it's flight characteristics

[johnh.]

Awesome! Yes you do inspire people. Please don't ever stop.

[djdavies]

Well done guys, I really liked seeing that "tail" in action, this is the same tendon concept I though could be used make a annamatronic tail for a slick Halloween costume.

[jshivadas]

You guys definitely put life into your planes. That was hilarious. I just want to say, "It's

[RandomGeneraed]

Hi flitetest, you guys should make a model space shuttle! I was thinking you could make two boosters with hobby rocket engines, these boosters along with an empty fuel tank that will detach from the shuttle. The shuttle should glide back to earth like its real life counterpart. With an FPV camera attached to shuttle, the will make a great 200th video! Keep up the great work!

[ufochannel]

redo it about half the length of the tail from from to back should be solid. then it would work fine the articulation is to big and to far out of alignment shorten how long the wires are by half. if you can. great effort! i was doing a pterodactyl with a tail i need to make a few minor adjustments and i will post it for you to see. tanks for all you guys do helping everyone.

[youronlycow]

really didn't expect the puppy joke, good one!

[mushbeck]

awesome idea, if you want it to work abit better you need equal amounts of the rudder fin above and below the elevator fin as you may of noticed the the tail twists when you turn it because there is nothing to counter the torque caused by the tail fin being only on top.

[nikerssg]

Haha, great project! And it was really fun to watch.

[Moeisabeast]

one time i accidentally did this :) i was building a micro plane with a flat fuselage and i attatched control rods and instead of moving the rudder the whole tail moved side to side and it worked very well :)

[krex]

I share your stuff with my non-RC Hobby friends too --- cool stuff and lots of fun....

[steveshlacker]

haha! that was fricken wicked guys :) Ridiculous how lifelike things look when you give them a tail lol

[tinkerrbill]

Have you played with the control rate? It looks like maybe the response is a little too quick/touchy? I really like this cool idea! How many servos to make it work?
Will

[jwjwjwjwjwjwjwjjwjwj]

I expect to see something cool for the 200th episode! :)

[TedRobotBuilder]

Yes, at 2:08 you can see it but you can not see it well. I would like to see a close up of the servos. Thank you.

[fahimhossain]

What an episode josh... awesome awesome

[gtopcu]

absolutely hilarious must def try this out :) nice vid thanks guys