http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/duggy/b52.wmv

[Edited on 6/9/04 by theconrodkid]

...especially when you know the thing was worth £30,000!

A friend of mine was at that show, and he said that the crash was spectacular.

David

In my own little world i found that very funny,sorry about that all you remote controlers.

just imagine if that was your locost tho.....

atb

steve

that thing looked awesome when it was flying. looked gutting when it crashed though

My friend was talking to the owner(s) prior to the short flight...

8 Engines and their controlling computers, £2000 each.
2 sets of premium-quality radio gear (for 2 pilots - 1 as back-up)
Assorted computing power to keep everything running properly
A whole load of carbon fibre/kevlar panels.
etc, etc

David

I used to fly model Helicopters. Not cheap but its not in the same league as that plane.

Mark

To the commentary, it stopped before the crash. How much time and effort went into that thing?

Looking at video, it almost looks like someone else switched their transmitter on. Perhpas sour grapes?

Used to happen a lot in model car racing, to the extent they had transmitter pounds to keep them in until race.
Seen guys in championship lead suddenly veer off track and crash. Obvious it was a rogue transmitter.

That happened to me... mine was just down to crap flying skills!

Though again, not in the same league.

I thought it looked like they got the direction wrong, ie plane was comming towards rather than going away, all though this is a basic error, not the sort of thing a pro flyer would do, I have a copter that i was learning to fly, but couldn't ever get the hang of, destined for E-bay now me thinks

Jason

Looked to me he didn't have enough airspeed, seemed to fall out of the air when turning back into wind...
Been there done that.

Was that the one they built on the Home & Leisure Model Show??? Not that I watched it of course

That was an amazing model, in all aspects. It breaks my heart to think about how the builder must have felt when it augered in... Such a pity...

Cool video though! Too bad it didn't crash in plain view so we could have enjoyed the splendor of the event.

FOr anyone interested in this old thread, he's rebuilding it. Have a look here

he certanly is a hero,better luck next time

The official investigation conducted by the LMA (large model association, who examined the aircraft/pilot to get the CAA exemption for a model plane weighing considerably more than 20kg) put it down to pilot error. I agree. The model B52 had a control system similar to the full size, in that control about the roll axis was accomplished using spoilers only (no ailerons).

Spoilers can only work by reducing the liff a wing produces, so they can only ever rotate the wing downwards. Now if the wing has a fairly low airspeed anyway, deploying the spoilers is going to reduce what little lift the wing is producing, resulting in very little roll authority. this is wosrened when the aircraft is in a highly banked turn (think of the lift required to keep it in the air. If the wing is not parallel with the ground, it has to produce more lift to stay up. Spoilers reduce the lift etc.). This is why the full size B52 has limitations on the bank angle it can fly at low airspeeds.

When the model crashed, I think it was pilot error that allowed too large a bank angle occur (maybe orientation problems?), making it difficult to keep the nose of the plane pointing in the right direction. When he tried to correct the excessive bank angle with opposite roll, the spoiler did it's job of reducing the lift over the high wing, but reduced the lift so much, that it entered a spiral dive, followed by the landing!

Gordon did rebuild the B52 (the crash was last year some time) over the winter, and unfortunately crashed it on the test flights when it was being re-examined for CAA exemption....

Oh, and most of the equipment in it was sponsored from the manufacturers....

Cheers
Andy