4 ms·

Here is the result of a previous run. Probably this one came to the same fate? Turbulence or atmospheric conditions leading to mid air disintegration. When ZULU

• mmastrac 4y ago
  That was wild: "While climbing through 8,000 ft above mean sea level, the UAV experienced a series of uncommanded turns. The UAV self-recovered from the first two uncommanded turns however, the third upset resulted in the aircraft entering an uncontrolled spiral descent. Despite attempts to return to controlled flight, the UAV sustained an in-flight break-up." I can only imagine the control systems that go into these gliders.
  • flavius29663 4y ago
    > I can only imagine the control systems that go into these gliders. Fun fact, most planes are inherently stable, just like paper planes. If there is a disturbance, they will self correct most of the time. For example, glider pilots, if they do something stupid, are instructed to just let go of the controls, and the glider recovers on its own very quickly. Few ways this can go wrong: the wings start to "flap" by vibrating to a resonant frequency, in which case they need to change something, and also spiraling down towards the earth: not because the plane would not recover eventually, but because it might experience high forces that destroy them before recovery can happen. Few planes are inherently un-stable: meaning they cannot keep flying without constant input, only examples I know of are fly-by-wire modern fighter jets (4th generation onward) and planes with weird shapes like the B2 bomber. I don't think there is too much control put into these gliders for second to second operations, they are probably just letting it fly forward, with the control being: point it in a very general direction and don't lose contact with it.
    • _hryr 4y ago
      Fighter jets and the B2 are by no means inherently stable, in fact they're inherently extremely unstable relative or to earlier designs. It's just that the fly by wire systems make them fly stable.
      • flavius29663 4y ago
        yeah, it was a typo, I meant unstable
        • Maursault 4y ago
          It was two typos in a row. Mysteriously missing "un"s, "il"s, "im"s, "in"s, "ir"s, "non"s and "not"s change the intended meaning to its opposite unintentionally. Happens to me all the time. Touchscreen kb?
    • Nekhrimah 4y ago
      I think you have a typo at the start of your second paragraph. Fairly certain you're calling out the few planes that are inherently UNstable there :)
      • flavius29663 4y ago
        thanks, that made my whole comment hard to understand
        • billforsternz 4y ago
          For what it's worth I found your whole comment easy to understand because it was well constructed and very logical, so much so that I didn't even notice the typo because your intent was so clear that I subconsciously auto-corrected it.
    • imiller 4y ago
      What I was (jokingly) told when flying paragliders is, if you just put your hands in the air and scream, the problem will probably resolve itself.