BTD10: The 835kph Sailplane and Dynamic Soaring
Why Hacker News recommends it
Recommended as a detailed, wonderful explanation of the physics of dynamic soaring and record-speed RC gliders.
What it is
Spencer Lisenby explains dynamic soaring, a technique that lets unpowered radio-controlled gliders reach speeds above 835 kph. He covers the physics and the design, build and flying challenges.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2022 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Recommends robomartin · 2022-09 · on “Create an Inexpensive Flying Wing / Drone (2019)”
Adding to that, here's slope soaring, which is really cool. I haven't really done a lot of this due to having to travel far to have access to this type of geography. Beautiful silent flight, no motors required. They do add motors to some of the planes just so you have backup in case you lose lift. Here's an excellent intro to the sport: [LINK] And then there's the absolutely crazy/demented --in a good way-- dynamic slope soaring. I have yet to experience this. This is the domain of sophisticated carbon fiber and top-quality components. You can find videos of planes exploding in flight due to loads. This is a long video with a detailed technical explanation of dynamic soaring: [this video] 548 mph
Recommends jessriedel · 2023-12 · on “Dynamic Soaring”
Here's a really wonderful talk by Spencer Lisenby about the basic physics and Lisenby's work on pushing the speed [this video] Some other interesting HN comments: [LINK] [LINK]
Cites chrisdalke · 2022-12 · on “Dynamic soaring as a means to exceed the solar wind speed”
Similar dynamic slope soaring has been researched and demonstrated to dramatic affect by Spencer Lisenby and others: [this video] . In the video I linked he describes how they engineered and flew a RC glider at a speed of 519mph. Makes a lot of sense that this could be applied on a larger atmospheric scale for spacecraft.