On the face of it "pragmatism > Confidence" might seem to contrast with Lindybeige's "modern armour makes you less safe overall" (his latest video), but actually agrees with you.
The work you are putting into each of your videos really shines through. Your content is great and the extra polish of diagrams really puts it in another league.
Please do this with the new starship design. I’d like to see how the “skydiver” control surfaces work and I think the new design could work with one of your builds. You have an excellent understanding of the forces at play.
The skydiver control style was the same even back then. What has changed is the back fins are positioned in a better place (only 2 of them) so better aerodynamic stability. Not that much has changed actually.
@@hund4440 It's entirely possible. The model can use EDF for propulsion just like this model and thus save a lot of weight. Sometimes the atmosphere is pretty handy if you have it.
@@MrRolnicek @MrRoInicek is correct. The control concept has not changed, only the landing leg placement. The change eliminated the need for the otherwise useless leedward fin and allowed the two remaining surfaces to be tapered on their trailing edges for less weight and better control. The reason the lightweight model is having difficulty is three-fold. First, the front fins on the model do not actuate, where as they will on the Starship. Second, the model has no form of ACS thrusters, where as the Starship will have these and thus be able to adjust its attitude in vertical flight. Third, and most important, the viscosity of air for a < 1kg model is magnitudes higher than it is for a 200000kg Starship. It's the equivalent of a parakeet vs. a Cessna 172, literally, I'm not kidding the ratio is about the same. So the model gets picked up by the wind much more easily and much more forcefully where as the larger craft will not not have nearly as much trouble.
@@StoneUSA you mean the viscous forces are greater right? Because viscosity of the air will be higher in starship's case since the air will be blazingly hot (viscosity of gasses increases with temperature). However, as you said, the scaling of its weight vs its surface area still likely results in substantially higher viscous forces (relative to its weight) than that of Starship (at least if we are talking about subsonic flight, supersonic flight of course is a while other beast). But all in all, great summary of the main points of comparison from the model's case to the real one.
Tom! Just watched the AMAZING SpaceX starship launch today (EPIC!!!) and came back to your great video here as a fun flashback. I hope you enjoyed watching the launch!
For security reasons, SpaceX can't really involve itself with people that aren't citizens of the U.S. because they work closely with the U.S. government and the obvious national security issues. Sadly I don't think Tom could work with the Musk unless he claims citizenship with the U.S.
@@jungoogie It's not totally true. SpaceX is able to get exceptions from the Secretary of State and it does happen. I believe if you are also a resident residing in a NATO country, due to the nature of intelligence sharing and project collaborations, getting involved in ITAR regulated jobs isn't as hard but still requires authorisation up the chains and probably so stupidly intense vetting processes.
@@fabiovezzari2895 Yeah... It's weird, I never knew him, I'm from another country... But I felt like I had just lost a close friend. You know? Anyway... That's life. 😕
@@TomStantonEngineering and given the especially thin atmosphere, I dont see how the control fins alone would be sufficient enough at the lower velocities of the final descent. They likely wont be needed at all until final descent, anyway, so the starship wouldn't even need to carry a large amount of rcs propellant. Therefore, saving some weight.
There really is allot to learn. Probably more than you realize from a "physics" perspective. Guidance systems on early ICBMs were simple compared to modern systems but were very complex compared to the dynamics you're attempting to simulate. Most don't realize; you're doing all this alone which is highly appreciated. We had multiple 'teams' of scientist just dedicated to a single set of vectors let alone 'all' of them, so R&D was quite expensive, and there were LOTS of failures and many many classified film reels. Consider yourself fortunate you don't have to make financial reports to a classified government agency which doesn't mind cancelling projects in the name of profit vs loss. How can we LEARN if we don't make mistakes ? NEVER give up !
Hey Tom, I was noticing the high pitch angles and the instabilities during landing.... I wanted to know... and maybe it’s a dumb idea ... but what if you could change the centre of mass during flight and make it variable to control with a PID system within the long tube?? It would help a little with stability I think.. also right now, the craft is fighting with a lot of external forces. Have you thought about doing the take off and flight in an indoor soccer stadium maybe?? If possible just control some variables that way...
Beautiful to see they 'listened' to your criticism of the rear fins. I always learn a lot from your videos. Time for a second video, with the new design of the Starship?
I really enjoy your projects you have a future in aerospace if you choose to do so I’m sure. I retired from it and I highly recommend it for you. Truly rewarding
My, this model/experiment is quite complex. Another great job, Tom! As an aside, is it just me, or is this the first video with birds and planes in frame? There's often a drone, however, the flight pattern for the nearest airport was definitely over the park on test flight day.
That actually worked fairly well! I think another method that the real spacecraft will have for controlling its final landing though will be the individual vectored thrust engines that can make small adjustments to keep it upright.
Checkout Flite Test's waterproof foamboard (available in the uk from Leeds model shop). Peel the paper off one side and you can roll the foamboard beautifully without resorting to the washboard solution.
It is actually very interesting to see how this accidentally matched the actual developement program. First small craft to check engine control(starhopper). Then add the body and fly only those(sn5-6) and then flop with proper model
Very cool project. Definitely one of the more challenging designs I've seen. Reminds me of the indoor free flight helicopters that we fly in AMA contests--they need a vane at the front to keep them nose up.
As a drone pilot, I dono how the heck u managed to fly this and kept such good control of this rocket haha. Awesome build and awesome work on it and the video Tom,I take my hat off to u man.. All the best 🚀
Take the paper off the inside of the curve before you try to bend then use the edge of a table or your bench to draw the foam over the edge curling it. I just covered a round fuselage Dash-8 with a 7 inch diameter that way. I did use two sections each going only half way around though.
Maybe have a 20 second timer that pulls the battery pack down on a small linear actuator to get the right C.G. for landing. Possibly flip the canards back to flat too. Amazing RC model!
Rocket weight distribution is the most important factor in balancing the rocket upright. This means that the rocket engine end must weigh more than the nose cone.
Very nicely done, that looks really.... fun.... to fly. A hair dryer works wonders on depron, I've found it easier to stretch rather then compress with heat, tested with 6mm depron on a form a quarter the size of your fuse, so I'd say heat and shape around a form, then apply tape.
I appreciate your efforts and I really like your designs. The Space X Starship is my favorite. I think you're focusing in the wrong area as your approach. So close. Look at it this way. Try balancing a stick (broom) on your palm and feel how the imbalance is. The top (cone of the rocket) of the stick is sort of like your pivot point. Your hand (palm) will do all the swaying and adjusting to keep it centered. This is sort of where all your focus is which I pretty much think you have it figured out and mastered. Its the cone or top that you need to control and keep pin point centered instead. And then the two will come together and give you full control of the flight and steady landing. The thrust and power you need is for landing and also to keep the top centered. Hope that makes sense. Just my observation and suggestion. I am not the expert. Just a creative thinker. Good luck and thanks for the fun and excitement. Aloha Ken
If you heat the foam, gently, with either an adjustable heat gun (starting from the lowest level) or a hair dryer, you can get it to bend/roll as wide or tight as you like by controlling temp over desired area & pressure. Might be easier working in smaller “sections” at a time and using a mold/jig.
Based on the published layout of the Starship, with the fuel tanks essentially empty, the center of mass would be fairly far forward. If you look at the final seconds of the simulated landing, the front fins are straight out, while the back fins are fully folded until the last second.
Hey Tom, Great work mate. The foam you are trying to bend has a grain. It will bend well one direction but will crease in the opposite direction. Once you find the correct direction, tape the outside of the bend and roll it useing different sizes/diameter pipes, like pvc or alloy. Have a look at RCgroups and search for Lockey, he and I have made some incredible jets and planes with rounded fuselages.
Again an excellent video Tom. I love how you get straight to the Crux of the problem and address all relevant aspects of it. You'll have to do a model of the "Skylon" (with Sabres) just for the hell of it. I made a small model and flew it in the Phoenix park (big Dublin park), but catered the thing. My first single stage to write off. 😂 Keep em coming.
Very interesting project! I guess part of why the controllability of your model is so bad is that the Reynolds number with your model is much smaller due to the smaller size and lower speed compared to the real size Starship. The design does not scale down when the air viscosity is constant.
I do think that the CoM is extremely important in this design. Remember, SpaceX is building out of carbon fiber, which is quite light, and those engines are decidedly not light, so yeah, their CoM will be quite far back. Also the moment of inertia of those front fins should be strong enough to affect the final change of orientation to the point of landing burn ignition. Obviously the engines will perform the final stabilization as they slow everything down to zero. Then the rear fins/legs can swing into place once the airspeed is low enough to be ignored. I do think they will keep this design, since it offers an extremely precise method of control during reentry that doesn't rely on propellant. They seem to have invested the time into the engineering, and I assume they know the mass penalties involved as well, and I can't think of a better way of dissipating all that heat than going in sideways.
You're absolutely right to focus on the old design. I mean the design that is newer than the older one and than the one before this one but older than the current one and than the one which will replace the current one in a few months/weeks. I'm beginning to feel like they should focus on getting it an actually good and creative name rather than on engineering :)-
Hey Tom. I believe that fuel is shifted along the length of the craft in many such full scale designs. Shifting the center of mass actively to the thrust end of the craft for fast decent. Then back to the top for thrust vectored reverse landing. I'll look for evidence of this vague memory. Nice work, as always.
Enjoyed your video Tom. Torque steer. Just a suggestion Stack 2 motors one facing up and one facing down . The counter rotation might do the trick. Great work one way or the other I hope you crack it.
nice... with regards to bending the fuse into a circle/tube, try removing the paper backing on the "inside" of the tube, that will help prevent creases
I'm surprised that this worked so well without the canards being able to move. And yeah, I'm sure that, given the funky mounting angle, depending on the flight situation they will work as pitch OR just roll and centre-of-lift controls.
Your near miss was a great approximation of a suicide burn which is ideal and accurate. I’m pretty sure they will also use cold gas thrusters for orientation control especially right before landing.
Problem is that its too light, and it too easily pushed around by the wind. Also larger scale models have more time to react and adjust to turbulence. But for a model of that size I'm impressed by the amount of control you were able to have on it, and you almost landed it many times. Nice work!
Secret to bending foam: Tape on all outside surface then roll it around a tube. Tape can be removed once you are done. Looks much nicer than multiple crease lines and safer (more reliable) than heat gun.
You need to correct for the gyroscopic forces. When it is vertical and it pitches forward you need the flight controller to give elevator and rudder input as well!
awesome work as usual Tom!
Please check out the flite test channel. Best content ever 😉
@@wingviewrc The above comment is from Flitetest.
Hi flitetest
hi flitetest
Tom you and your counterpart there do excellent work videos aren’t comedy.
Exellent work man, it's incredible how close you went to replicate the functioning of the real thing. Keep up the good work!
It's not rocket engine powered so no
Mega job dude! Super clever bit of servo work those fins. :)
Cheers mate!
1:00 Haha, "when" not "if"
Pragmatism > Confidence
That’s what I was thinking
On the face of it "pragmatism > Confidence" might seem to contrast with Lindybeige's "modern armour makes you less safe overall" (his latest video), but actually agrees with you.
Just about to type that
7:02 Did you noticed the aeroplane flying in background at the same time.😃
I noticed that too, it's cool seeing it slowly go into the clouds haha.
and the ufo on left side look
So what...
Starship : look dad i can also fly
Airliner : i wouldn't call that flying , also where is your dad ?
The work you are putting into each of your videos really shines through. Your content is great and the extra polish of diagrams really puts it in another league.
Please do this with the new starship design. I’d like to see how the “skydiver” control surfaces work and I think the new design could work with one of your builds. You have an excellent understanding of the forces at play.
The skydiver control style was the same even back then. What has changed is the back fins are positioned in a better place (only 2 of them) so better aerodynamic stability.
Not that much has changed actually.
Thats nearly impossible because surfaces (controls) and volume (weight) dont scale the same way (square vs cube)
@@hund4440 It's entirely possible. The model can use EDF for propulsion just like this model and thus save a lot of weight. Sometimes the atmosphere is pretty handy if you have it.
@@MrRolnicek @MrRoInicek is correct. The control concept has not changed, only the landing leg placement. The change eliminated the need for the otherwise useless leedward fin and allowed the two remaining surfaces to be tapered on their trailing edges for less weight and better control. The reason the lightweight model is having difficulty is three-fold. First, the front fins on the model do not actuate, where as they will on the Starship. Second, the model has no form of ACS thrusters, where as the Starship will have these and thus be able to adjust its attitude in vertical flight. Third, and most important, the viscosity of air for a < 1kg model is magnitudes higher than it is for a 200000kg Starship. It's the equivalent of a parakeet vs. a Cessna 172, literally, I'm not kidding the ratio is about the same. So the model gets picked up by the wind much more easily and much more forcefully where as the larger craft will not not have nearly as much trouble.
@@StoneUSA you mean the viscous forces are greater right? Because viscosity of the air will be higher in starship's case since the air will be blazingly hot (viscosity of gasses increases with temperature). However, as you said, the scaling of its weight vs its surface area still likely results in substantially higher viscous forces (relative to its weight) than that of Starship (at least if we are talking about subsonic flight, supersonic flight of course is a while other beast). But all in all, great summary of the main points of comparison from the model's case to the real one.
I love how you take your time to explain the physics theories behind it! Real nice touch Tom! :)
Tom! Just watched the AMAZING SpaceX starship launch today (EPIC!!!) and came back to your great video here as a fun flashback. I hope you enjoyed watching the launch!
Fantastic work, Tom! They should contract you for prototyping! 😃
Or at least show someone! It's a pretty good look at it either way
For security reasons, SpaceX can't really involve itself with people that aren't citizens of the U.S. because they work closely with the U.S. government and the obvious national security issues. Sadly I don't think Tom could work with the Musk unless he claims citizenship with the U.S.
@@jungoogie Oh, that's a bummer. 😕
@@jungoogie It's not totally true. SpaceX is able to get exceptions from the Secretary of State and it does happen. I believe if you are also a resident residing in a NATO country, due to the nature of intelligence sharing and project collaborations, getting involved in ITAR regulated jobs isn't as hard but still requires authorisation up the chains and probably so stupidly intense vetting processes.
@@jungoogie I dont understand Trump works for Russia and is not a problem............
6:36 wasn't a close call, it was perfection! Your small model can do in a blink of an eye the turn that the Starship will do in the space of 1 km.
Using hot air to bend the foam makes life a lot easier
I thought, "didn't you read Tintin: Explorers on the Moon?" and then: uneven surface will counteract and smooth roll.
Bah, I would just spend 4 days 3d printing the cyclinder out with a spool of ABS 🤣.
Peeling the paper off the "inside" and rolling it on the edge of the workbench works great.
*Dance the Skies*
SpaceX: **releases any kind of craft**
Tom Stanton: *GOTTA MAKE IT RC*
You're a legend Tom, keep doing what you're doing.
Your attention to detail and your engineering abilities always amaze me. Nice job Tom:)
I miss Sam Shepherd, this video makes me remember his last one about the 3d rocket....
Me too, dude... Me too... 😔
@@MCsCreations I watched his father video the same day I started studying engineering at university... This news really told me to study hard.
@@fabiovezzari2895 Yeah... It's weird, I never knew him, I'm from another country... But I felt like I had just lost a close friend. You know? Anyway... That's life. 😕
His videos where the best.
Sam was Experimental Airlines?
Well done, gave some useful insight into the control of Starship. Hope SpaceX has also appreciates the need to avoid telegraph lines.
11Kv power lines
1:00 "when it crashes" good job tom!
Awesome project Tom!! Love what you've done with your channel 👍
Thanks mate!
@@TomStantonEngineering and given the especially thin atmosphere, I dont see how the control fins alone would be sufficient enough at the lower velocities of the final descent. They likely wont be needed at all until final descent, anyway, so the starship wouldn't even need to carry a large amount of rcs propellant. Therefore, saving some weight.
Those fins look so friggin cool when they move!
Really cool. It works like magic.
You are just pure awesomeness man! Always a delight to watch you build stuff!😄💎
My god, the bfs/starship will be an absolute aerodynamic masterpiece
I don’t have the abilities to make the things that you do. However I’ve learned so much from your channel,
Thank you!
Your ability to fly this thing based on a deep aeronautical understanding is overwhelming!
Hey Tom have you tried using a heat gun while making rounded shapes using foam? The heat does help a lot. :)
So cool to see someone so passionate accomplish these projects
There really is allot to learn. Probably more than you realize from a "physics" perspective. Guidance systems on early ICBMs were simple compared to modern systems but were very complex compared to the dynamics you're attempting to simulate. Most don't realize; you're doing all this alone which is highly appreciated. We had multiple 'teams' of scientist just dedicated to a single set of vectors let alone 'all' of them, so R&D was quite expensive, and there were LOTS of failures and many many classified film reels. Consider yourself fortunate you don't have to make financial reports to a classified government agency which doesn't mind cancelling projects in the name of profit vs loss. How can we LEARN if we don't make mistakes ? NEVER give up !
This is so awesome. Keep going Tom, you are a genius, yes you are.
Hey Tom, I was noticing the high pitch angles and the instabilities during landing.... I wanted to know... and maybe it’s a dumb idea ... but what if you could change the centre of mass during flight and make it variable to control with a PID system within the long tube?? It would help a little with stability I think.. also right now, the craft is fighting with a lot of external forces. Have you thought about doing the take off and flight in an indoor soccer stadium maybe?? If possible just control some variables that way...
Really enjoy watching your experimental projects! I couldn't help thinking how much the rocket looked like a squid in the animations.
Why does your RC BFR Starship seem so adorable to me? No, I’m serious. It’s adorable!
Dude, you are my new hero, that is the most accurate thing I have ever seen built 😮
Beautiful to see they 'listened' to your criticism of the rear fins.
I always learn a lot from your videos.
Time for a second video, with the new design of the Starship?
I love that the rocket actually goes ' wheeeeeee!!!' when it lifts off. I think Elon should add this feature to the real thing.
Great save on that dive Stanton. This would be a gem to FPV someday. Cheers mate -Aero
I really enjoy your projects you have a future in aerospace if you choose to do so I’m sure. I retired from it and I highly recommend it for you. Truly rewarding
Seeing a Starship doing a belly flop, is a tasty delite.
Thanks to you.... I learned a lot about the PID controls with you mentioning a lot about it in your videos.
My, this model/experiment is quite complex. Another great job, Tom!
As an aside, is it just me, or is this the first video with birds and planes in frame? There's often a drone, however, the flight pattern for the nearest airport was definitely over the park on test flight day.
I LEARNED A LOT ABOUT SPACE-X..THANKYOU VERY MUCH.
I laughed at the beginning, the high-pitched sound is too good.
That actually worked fairly well! I think another method that the real spacecraft will have for controlling its final landing though will be the individual vectored thrust engines that can make small adjustments to keep it upright.
Checkout Flite Test's waterproof foamboard (available in the uk from Leeds model shop). Peel the paper off one side and you can roll the foamboard beautifully without resorting to the washboard solution.
It is actually very interesting to see how this accidentally matched the actual developement program. First small craft to check engine control(starhopper). Then add the body and fly only those(sn5-6) and then flop with proper model
Very cool project. Definitely one of the more challenging designs I've seen. Reminds me of the indoor free flight helicopters that we fly in AMA contests--they need a vane at the front to keep them nose up.
Now make a rubber band powered version of this :) :)
this was amazing, you just made a model type that never existed before and fly it like a pro
Hey Tom, did you watch the SN8 flight yesterday?
i love how the intro is just the mini rocket launching into the air and screaming WEEEEEEE!
THIS IS CRAZY!!! Such an awesome job 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
This is one of your best projects IMHO great job
As a drone pilot, I dono how the heck u managed to fly this and kept such good control of this rocket haha. Awesome build and awesome work on it and the video Tom,I take my hat off to u man.. All the best 🚀
7:35 Those power lines are your arch-nemesis!
Very interesting test flights Tom. Always fun to watch your trials.
This particular ginger gives me great hope for the future. Well done, sir.
Literally test flying under electricity cables... Come on Tom! 😄
Take the paper off the inside of the curve before you try to bend then use the edge of a table or your bench to draw the foam over the edge curling it. I just covered a round fuselage Dash-8 with a 7 inch diameter that way. I did use two sections each going only half way around though.
Maybe have a 20 second timer that pulls the battery pack down on a small linear actuator to get the right C.G. for landing.
Possibly flip the canards back to flat too.
Amazing RC model!
Hey Tom, this is really cool. Can you try to make a version with and EDF afterburner or with sugar rockets to slow down the descent? Thanks!
bomby 1238 check out BPS.space on UA-cam. He’s trying to make a model falcon heavy with powered landings. 10/10 on the coolness scale
@@YellRyan ok, thanks!
@@bomby_ have u check it out?? The guy looks like Young ElonMusk right?😂😂
@@merxellus1456 yah he does
Great research and development! Well done Tom! I think there's still more to be done, don't you think?
Rocket weight distribution is the most important factor in balancing the rocket upright. This means that the rocket engine end must weigh more than the nose cone.
Very nicely done, that looks really.... fun.... to fly. A hair dryer works wonders on depron, I've found it easier to stretch rather then compress with heat, tested with 6mm depron on a form a quarter the size of your fuse, so I'd say heat and shape around a form, then apply tape.
I appreciate your efforts and I really like your designs. The Space X Starship is my favorite. I think you're focusing in the wrong area as your approach. So close.
Look at it this way. Try balancing a stick (broom) on your palm and feel how the imbalance is. The top (cone of the rocket) of the stick is sort of like your pivot point. Your hand (palm) will do all the swaying and adjusting to keep it centered. This is sort of where all your focus is which I pretty much think you have it figured out and mastered. Its the cone or top that you need to control and keep pin point centered instead. And then the two will come together and give you full control of the flight and steady landing. The thrust and power you need is for landing and also to keep the top centered. Hope that makes sense. Just my observation and suggestion. I am not the expert. Just a creative thinker. Good luck and thanks for the fun and excitement. Aloha Ken
If you heat the foam, gently, with either an adjustable heat gun (starting from the lowest level) or a hair dryer, you can get it to bend/roll as wide or tight as you like by controlling temp over desired area & pressure. Might be easier working in smaller “sections” at a time and using a mold/jig.
Really nice video tom. You are one of the best youtubers out there. Keep it up
A big thumbs up for this video Tom. Excellent use of your skills young man!
Based on the published layout of the Starship, with the fuel tanks essentially empty, the center of mass would be fairly far forward. If you look at the final seconds of the simulated landing, the front fins are straight out, while the back fins are fully folded until the last second.
Hey Tom, Great work mate. The foam you are trying to bend has a grain. It will bend well one direction but will crease in the opposite direction. Once you find the correct direction, tape the outside of the bend and roll it useing different sizes/diameter pipes, like pvc or alloy. Have a look at RCgroups and search for Lockey, he and I have made some incredible jets and planes with rounded fuselages.
Again an excellent video Tom. I love how you get straight to the Crux of the problem and address all relevant aspects of it. You'll have to do a model of the "Skylon" (with Sabres) just for the hell of it. I made a small model and flew it in the Phoenix park (big Dublin park), but catered the thing. My first single stage to write off. 😂 Keep em coming.
Very interesting project! I guess part of why the controllability of your model is so bad is that the Reynolds number with your model is much smaller due to the smaller size and lower speed compared to the real size Starship. The design does not scale down when the air viscosity is constant.
Pretty insane and cool. I subbed for the ebike stuff, and I hope to see more in that direction as well. Thanks for the cool vids.
Good video, nice Rocket Science content and thanks for keeping it about an RC Rocket.
Great modelling and explanations
Take out the wind/weather veritable by using an enclosed space and fine tune.. You are on to something!!
to make foam or carboard round, you can slightly cut it with a cutter, but not completely through
Well done young man.
I do think that the CoM is extremely important in this design. Remember, SpaceX is building out of carbon fiber, which is quite light, and those engines are decidedly not light, so yeah, their CoM will be quite far back. Also the moment of inertia of those front fins should be strong enough to affect the final change of orientation to the point of landing burn ignition. Obviously the engines will perform the final stabilization as they slow everything down to zero. Then the rear fins/legs can swing into place once the airspeed is low enough to be ignored. I do think they will keep this design, since it offers an extremely precise method of control during reentry that doesn't rely on propellant. They seem to have invested the time into the engineering, and I assume they know the mass penalties involved as well, and I can't think of a better way of dissipating all that heat than going in sideways.
Actually, they're building out of stainless steel now.
Thx for this Tom just found your channel,loving it. Subscribed yes
You're absolutely right to focus on the old design. I mean the design that is newer than the older one and than the one before this one but older than the current one and than the one which will replace the current one in a few months/weeks.
I'm beginning to feel like they should focus on getting it an actually good and creative name rather than on engineering :)-
most underrated channel....
Hey Tom. I believe that fuel is shifted along the length of the craft in many such full scale designs. Shifting the center of mass actively to the thrust end of the craft for fast decent. Then back to the top for thrust vectored reverse landing. I'll look for evidence of this vague memory. Nice work, as always.
Impressive, gives you an idea how the actual craft will act in flight.
I really enjoyed this project series Tom, thanks!
Very well done Tom! I’m sure SpaceX will use gas thrusters...
thank you elon, very cool.
Enjoyed your video Tom.
Torque steer.
Just a suggestion Stack 2 motors
one facing up and one facing down .
The counter rotation might do the trick.
Great work one way or the other I hope you crack it.
very nice work Tom.
Great idea for Halloween!
nice... with regards to bending the fuse into a circle/tube, try removing the paper backing on the "inside" of the tube, that will help prevent creases
*Tom can into space!*
I'm surprised that this worked so well without the canards being able to move. And yeah, I'm sure that, given the funky mounting angle, depending on the flight situation they will work as pitch OR just roll and centre-of-lift controls.
Incredible bit of work pal, thanks. I'm getting inspired.
Your near miss was a great approximation of a suicide burn which is ideal and accurate. I’m pretty sure they will also use cold gas thrusters for orientation control especially right before landing.
I wasn't expecting that intro *"REEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"*
Keep walking! Never stop!
very nice, dunno shit about modeling but life seldom works out perfectly with one try.
@6:36 I like the photobomb from the jet :)
Problem is that its too light, and it too easily pushed around by the wind. Also larger scale models have more time to react and adjust to turbulence. But for a model of that size I'm impressed by the amount of control you were able to have on it, and you almost landed it many times. Nice work!
Secret to bending foam: Tape on all outside surface then roll it around a tube. Tape can be removed once you are done. Looks much nicer than multiple crease lines and safer (more reliable) than heat gun.
You need to correct for the gyroscopic forces. When it is vertical and it pitches forward you need the flight controller to give elevator and rudder input as well!