How beautiful does that glider fly? Really lovely to see it flying all on its own. 😀

Agreed, enjoyed that.

What exactly was all the equipment they needed that big fat fuselage for? They showed the auto-pilot with GPS, gyros etc. and that certainly didn’t need all that space (though I’d argue what they showed was far larger than needed for that functionality). The RC back up control unit would have been tiny in comparison. Which only really leaves the camera equipment – but then the onboard footage they showed was no better than you could get from a tiny bullet camera. I suspect they loaded it up with rather more stuff than they really needed to.

OK so they achieved their target, but I can’t help thinking they could easily have built a far more efficient plane (with a much higher aspect ratio wing and a nice slender fuselage as used on a proper high performance glider) which didn’t need dropping from such high altitude.

He said he wanted to be as truthful to the ” normal glider shape” as possible as that was his childhood dream, hence the shape it was.

Kind of reminded me of the escape from Colditz glider

He said he wanted to be as truthful to the ” normal glider shape” as possible as that was his childhood dream, hence the shape it was.

Ah – I missed that bit. But he’s not all that much older than me, and my idea of “normal glider shape” is rather more like:

He was talking about the glider kits you bought in Woolies as a kid. West Wings are doing them now but they haven’t really changed since before the dawn of time. Just to be a bit pedantic, it wasn’t really free flight was it? Clockwork or fuse timer was the only control *back in the day*.

Did make me want to fly my planes again this year though after a couple of years doing very little flying.

The squarest thing this side of Michael Gove

😆

Very good broadcaster, very good programme – even with the French bashing!

it wasn’t really free flight was it?

No. But you’ve not got a hope in HELL of flying 22 miles from 10,000 feet by just chucking it in the vague direction, have you? 🙂

I really enjoyed that one, they had a lot of problems with the flight itself but they kept going until they got it right.
Did you see the helicopter pilot? He was well into it, like a big kid 🙂

Yet another great programme, caught it by pure chance.

Yep, missed that bit. Ace prog. James May is good to watch as in completely opposite to that midget ****t he co presents with on TG. He actually makes my skin crawl he’s so odious… :-/

Hammond? Really? I think you need to relax a bit dude! 🙂

🙂 have you given up selling gravel yet? I’ve got a puncture needs fixing 🙂

Remember as a kid there was this student teacher whose passion was building balsawood gliders powered from a rubber band for the initial lift.

They would fly for absolutely ages.. sometimes into the distance, never to return.

I was fascinated.

But you’ve not got a hope in HELL of flying 22 miles from 10,000 feet by just chucking it in the vague direction, have you?

You might – but not necessarily 22 miles in the direction you wanted to go.

I can’t help thinking they could easily have built a far more efficient plane (with a much higher aspect ratio wing and a nice slender fuselage as used on a proper high performance glider) which didn’t need dropping from such high altitude.

The design was was based on the Slingsby Swallow, used as a trainer glider by the RAF and itself a pretty chunky design.
utterly pointless and utterly brilliant

Yes thats the key thing.Pointless fun

I thought they were going to go for the endurance model glider record, which is 36 hours!!!!

http://www.rc-soar.com/wr_duration/index.html

I love science and technology.
Moreso useless science and technology!

I’m amazed (well, more impressed than amazed) that the glider could almost have been guided through a hoop on that tiny island, having been released 22 miles away, with just the onboard flight control 🙂

Makes me grin to be alive, what with all the tech available to consumers nowadays!

DrP

I laughed when May said the glider might fly through the lighthouse keeper’s window, then saw how close the bloody thing came to landing on the grass runway! My phone’s GPS accuracy is between 16-32ft, when I get a good satellite lock, so that’s about as good as it gets. Brilliant fun, as pp said, the chopper pilot was really loving it.

Agreed, great prog. Speaking as someone as old as May, remembering making the same models and looking wishfully at RC systems that cost £200 for a single channel, when pocket money was £1 a month, it’s just amazing what you can get now for a few £’s.

Brilliant stuff. It made me smile fo rthe best part of an hour.

The Toy Story series has been some of the best TV I’ve seen in ages and I don’t think it would work with anyone else presenting it.

This is a similar poject but on steroids

release from 60,000 feet. Guy wrote his own auto pilot software…

http://www.canuck-boffin.net/sonde/index.htm