Author: Administrator

Another day of sewing, soldering and trailer repair.

The air beam outer shells have been hemmed (thanks Paul) and today we’re making cylinders out of them.

We’re modifying the current data logging system from the Discovery Channel solar missions to measure the current from the MHD generator on the quad engine. We’re going to up the data rate from 5 samples a second to 20 samples a second. Other than that we’ll be running pretty much the same system. Just to be safe side and redundant I think we’re also going to put an auto adjusting meter inline and put a video camera on it. I know it’s klugy, but, I really want that data.

The tail mount for the chase plane on the trailer is very flaky. We had to stop and tighten it several time on the way to the airport. Today we’re making a completely new tail mounting system.

Away 45 from last April.  We call this a ‘Half Rack’. These are great when we need just a light weight test done.

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We’ve finished the remote trigger for the RF portion of the quad engine. The next step is making the mounts for the magnets.

We’ve also finished cutting out the fabric for the two 50 foot air beams (main and backup). The tricky part was marking them. Drawing eight, fifty-four foot long straight lines on an amazingly slippery lightweight fabric is a chore. Now on to hemming and joining. I can just feel the excitement of the team building, “Oh boy more sewing!”.

We made a seven inch diameter air beam test article. Seven inch beams will be used for the the High Beam mission and a fifty foot diameter Dark Sky Station to be launched next summer. Before committing all that fabric on a 50 foot beam we made a eight foot long seven inch diameter beam. It was mainly to testing the fitting of the inner liner and end caps. All the prior air beams were fourteen inches in diameter.

Tonight we pressurized the beam. It held fine at 2 psi, the operating pressure, and burst at 5.1 psi. My ears are still ringing…

Just for a moment. We took the Sky Pup to the airport for high speed taxi runs and hop tests today. All went incredibly well. During one of the runs I brought the Pup just off the ground a couple of feet and flew down the runway.  Does this mark the official beginning of our manned flight program? Today three of our pilots got in training before the crosswinds picked up and we had to call it a day.

The trailer got a good shake down carrying the plane 35 miles to the airport and back.  It was a good day.

The Neodymium magnets for the quad engine arrived today. They will be used in the MHD generator portion of the engine.

The ruler had to be taped down down to keep it from wrapping around the magnets.

The engine of the Sky Pup roared to life yesterday. It’s had been sitting while the trailer was being built and had refused to start. We ended up draining all the fuel, rebuilding the fuel pump and thoroughly cleaning the carburetor.  We also mounted a steerable tail wheel.  Still no sign of the ballistic parachute from the manufacture (10 months over due).

The engine and tail wheel.

Carbon tail wheel linkage mounting bracket

To build the giant stations and airships  we need to start testing the airbeam structures up high. This is a flight we’re planning to carry a 50 foot airbeam to 100,000 feet.

We’re calling the mission “High Beam”.

We just finished the power harness for the mobile quad. We put in a big 60 amp switch that selects between “shore power” and the battery. This way we can do all the preliminary checklist tests while plugged into the mission control van. Then we’ll switch to battery for the last page and the firing.