Watching DVB's TV program on
radio-controlled model planes a few days back, I have this nostalgia
for my high school days when I frequently did my round of window
shopping at one particular shop on the east side of the then Latta
(now Latha) street in downtown Yangon. So far as I could remember, it
was the only place where they display a miniature diesel engine for a
model airplane for sale at that time. I remember it as a sleek 0.5 cc
engine and the price was a bit over 40 kyats. Those days, it was
indeed a steep price for a school boy from a home which was
struggling to make ends meet. The brand of the engine I remember was
“Frog”--yes, that's right, I just confirmed it from the Web!
Those days too, I wasn't able to afford
to buy even a kit of model airplane made of Balsa wood with its
propeller powered by a rubber band. Yet I could save enough to buy a
solid model kit of the famous American Jet fighter Sabre, cut
and shaped it, assembled, painted, and polished it and manged to win
a second price at an aeromodel competition. No wonder, of my many
ambitions one was to be an aircraft designer and again like most of
my ambitions this also had to be dropped after I completed high
school.
Like in the old times my heart still
throbs as I watched radio-controlled model planes fly in the DVB
program. But the fact is that you not only need to have a stylish
model plane that could fly, but you also need good radio-control
equipment that alone would cost you something like five to eight
hundred thousand kyats. Moreover you'll need a car to take you and
your equipment to a big enough free space to fly and which also comes
with some piece of paved road to use as a runway. No wonder it is an
exclusive rich boys' club about twenty strong, though I spotted one
gentleman in his forties or fifties who is also a drone enthusiast.
I looked up about them on the Web and
found Myanmar RC Builders & Flyers Club here
from where these pictures were taken.
It's good. But what about those pitiful
admirers including the ko-yins in saffron robes? Well, here's what
they could do.
That was from instructions for making
Foam Plate and Plastic Straw Gliders available here.
There is a lot of webpages available
for how to make foam plate gliders, but a lot of them ask you to use
an electric glue gun and when I looked for the price at a supermarket
I found that it would cost a bit over 5000 kyats and a piece of glue
stick about 14 inches long will cost you 200 kyats. However, the
above source gives instructions on making foam plate gliders using
tape for gluing, so that is the one you may prefer.
Well, that is not the end of my story.
It is always good to have high enough ambitions I suppose, especially
for ordinary folks. So I'll pretend that the straw and foam gliders
and paper gliders are nearer to micro air vehicles
(that is a biiiiiig leap of faith, but decide for yourselves) than
the radio-controlled model airplanes which are nearer to real
airplanes at our service and so that's nothing new.
How about this:
“With
no motor and only about 10 parts, the Cicada resembles a paper
airplane with a circuit board”.
See what I mean!
While different nations have been doing all-out MAV research,
the Black Hornet MAV first used by UK troops in Afghanistan in 2012
is yet to be beaten. It has been described as the spy plane that
fits in the palm of your hand.
However it doesn't come cheap; the price is 20m pounds for just 160 units! But it is said to be considerably more advanced than anything that would be found on a remote-controlled aircraft; the motors, servos and sensors are smaller and more efficient; the radio-link is more advanced, the system has fully integrated GPS, as well an autopilot system, and is far more robust.
“Developed
by Norwegian firm Prox Dynamics — which began life developing
devices for the remote-control plane market — the tiny vehicle
weighs just 15g and measures around 10 by 2.5cm. … Launched by hand
and controlled via a tablet, the device is equipped with a tiny video
camera and video downlink that it uses to relay real-time footage to
its operators.”
But the most interesting research
currently is the development of flapping-wing vehicles that mimic
bird and insect flight. It is commonly believed that micro fixed
wing airplanes and helicopters outperform MAVs at the size of birds,
but become inferior to flapping MAVs at the size of insects. As for
the flying insects they have refined
their flight over 300 million years of evolution so their method is
exceptionally power efficient, silent and allow them to be incredibly
agile. By mimicking them researchers hope to create a new generation
of tiny air vehicles capable of operating in confined spaces and
inside buildings.
As for me, one of these days I am going
to show you my paper glider that kept me thrilled (for a modest few
seconds to be frank, because that's the limit of their flying time)
and you only need some smooth and rigid enough paper, a scissor, and
some cooked rice soft enough to use as paste. But I can't promise. So
it will be better to start your own project right now, and … happy
flying!
And don't be selfish. Let the kids have
your glider and better still, share your design secrets.
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