How do we start this thing? | The DarkAero 1 Prototype
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
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We are getting closer to the first engine start for the DarkAero 1 prototype. There are still a lot of little tasks to wrap up before we can. This video covers several of those tasks.
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We all greatly appreciate this exciting update. We’ve missed you pretty bad.
Hi guys.in an emergency situation, how does the landing gear fall forward under gravity if it also has to fight aerodynamic loads trying to keep the leg and wheel rearward? Genuinely interested, not trying to pick hole.
Jinking the nose down abruptly and hope the maneuver and wheel weight will overcome wind resistance.
Hi DarkAero Team. Very awesome to see your Dreams Coming True. The plane looks sweet and the Quality is right on do it Right First. Can’t wait to see the First Clear the Prop start Up. Love how Strong the Landing Gear Looks. Well Be Save and stay True to Your Goals.
Thank you! We are really excited for the first engine start and first flight as well!
@@DarkAeroInc Be Safe as we know your Team Is. I love the Carbon fiber Look. Very thought of Be the First F5J Sailplane made in America? Yes DarkAero comes First.
I am not an engineer. Far from it. But I am concerned about the beautifully close tolerances in the parts that you are making, and the coefficient of expansion of aluminum. The airplane could experience actual temperatures of -20 to +130. Does your CAD design software automatically take this into consideration? Personally, I would like you to address this issue in your videos.
C clips on the pivot pins would make me nervous. They rely on tension and in certain applications have been known to pop off. But, given your otherwise thorough design and engineering I'm sure you've considered alternatives. Nice work.
I knew it was a good morning when I saw the DarkAero notification. Love spending time with your channel.
There will be alot of torque transmitted through those gear teeth. I'm sure it's all calculated and simulated
Incredible project guys! You do a great job with your videos, can’t wait for first engine start!
I hope that latch thing is made of titanium, cause it's really gonna have a lot stress applied to it
Impressive engineering but I do wonder does it all translate to cost efficient manufacturing? Almost seem too good to be true.
The click when the gear locks, and how solid the whole unit is when that happens is very satisfying.
Pretty fancy stuff but this it is going to get very, get expensive with all that machining. You could make a lot of this a lot simpler and cheaper and just as efficient. It just won't look as "wow", but remember, if you don't make money on this, is all pointless.
Instead of paint have a look with vinyl wrapping really good with weight !!!
Great to see young Engineers working hard and doing so well. Very Well done guys!
Not to throw shade on the guy who built the ‘raptor’ prototype, but man are you guys doing a much better job of considering and solving potential design issues before they arise. This thing looks like it’ll be more production ready than any other prototype that’s ever made it off the ground. Keep it up 👍
Getting close to that big day. You have potentially the best engineered airplane of all time, even rivaling Mike Patey
Mr. Patey built his plane like a tank. These boys are building the F1 car of the skies. It's gonna be a real performer, and it's going to do its job well, but it will be very unforgiving and in a crash that landing gear is going through the occupants Vlad the Impaler style.
Can't wait for you guys to fly your plane. Keep us posted, your videos are fascinating.
Hire a professional test pilot for that.
You guys are doing such an amazing job on this aircraft! Its fascinating to watch all of your hard work, ingenuity & craftsmanship, in designing the sleekest aircraft ever! The finished product is going to be legendary!
Those gear lock clicking noises are sooooo satisfying 🙂
Big compliments for your process, with the big concept lines and the small details. Nice to follow this. Good luck with the last steps.
You may want to consider using a better wear combination material or a striker plate for that latch and pin. Al is prone to wear damage and doesn't hold up well for latch applications.
Nice job on the firewall pass-through and the ingenious up/down locks! Keep at it, we all expect to see and oogle over it at OSH this year!
Great video. I'm interested in how you interfaced carbon and aluminium. Is there any special coating between those two?
They did an excellent video on this exact subject. Search their channel for it and enjoy. Welcome to the DarkAero YT community.
@@FiferSkipper Thanks! Just saw that video. Amazing explanation of the problem. The fiberglass layer makes the most sense for my application.
Exciting stuff! Cant wait to see more :)
Good professional processes, step by step, to create a production ready airplane. This project deserves to become a series production aircraft.
cool carbon fiber plane
I can’t wait to see her first flight. Well Done Gentlemen
Siempre he querido ver una versión civil de A10 warthog......
Like your design but I think it looks very unusual. Whats going to drive the Clip to lock the gear if there's a power failure. The servo wont work - b/c there's no power. Are you expecting Gravity to have enough force to lock the gear down and engage the locking mechanism....and what if it doesn't (then you don't have functional...secured landing gear...it would collapse on touch down...doesn't sound overly reliable)!?! What if Gravity pulls the gear down halfway.....and b/c of the unusual orientation of the gear....the arm of the gear just bounces off the locking mechanism or doesn't reach the locking mechanism at all and just swings freely under the aircraft (not enough gravitational force to engage the locking mechanism and secure the undercarriage....or it doesnt swing down enough due to drag.....that it would ever engage the locking mechanism....).....also just b/c of aerodynamic drag......the manual gear release is cable driven correct? cant push a cable.....so if/when this happens...then what? What redundancies are there in this situation? so you're using Gravity, not expecting any external forces on the airframe, implementing a cable release......sounds a little scary to me......there has to be a more reliable way to manually engage and lock the undercarriage, no? (I dunno maybe I'm wrong...and please correct me....but I'm seeing flaws in that methodology)?
Such a satisfying sound when it locks, really nicely designed!
Is there any lift component to the horizontal stabilizer? It looks to be flat,
Horizontal stabilizers normally provide a down force (negative lift) in steady-state flight.
Please give calculations for selection of engine.
A) ground handling power required to overcome weight.
B)power required to accelerate for take off.
C) power required to ensure design climbing.
D) power required to cruise.
E) power required to ensure optimum bite of propeller in all above.
You should shear test the lock mechanism fasteners and lock mechanism. It's a failure point.
I have to say recently i've been following this endevour closely, its great to see more leaps being taken with general aviation to bring lighter, faster more efficent aircraft to market. I admit that I have a thing for vintage aircraft and simple technologies however having watched a lot of your videos It's reminded me that it is a mix of new and old, where wood composits were once used on aircraft like the DH Comet and mosquito, carbon fibre and fibre glass now exist, where slide rules and paper were once used, cad software can now be used. In some ways new technologies are simpler then old, and in some ways old simpler then new.
Having worked on and flown 5 types of vintage aircraft I can say that they can be ergonomically challenging in many respects. From trying to undo nuts with minimal clearance for tools, requiring the use of custom tooling or excetionally small hands and high patience. To dealing with preventantive maintenance such as preventing wood from taking on moisture, correcting fabric issues using fabric tapes and dopes. As well as working on exceptionally rare engines with guidance from experts. This also is with consideration to varying climates as I live in the UK where it can be 15c one day and within a couple of days go down to -5c in the mornings where radials will struggle to reach correct operating temperatures, something we have been dealing with as exhaust manifolds crack and parts are rare to come by.
It makes me wonder how such challenges will be addressed with composite aircraft, such as condensation in the wings especially if they're wet wings, to making sure the cores of the sandwiches do not get logged. I wonder how much lighter a 30s aircraft would be if designed with new composites over existing wood, fabric and metal structures. I for one would certainly like to fly a dark aero some day.
Man thats a neat aramid design!!!! You get close to 500mph yiuve suceeded
Those locking pawls on the main gear look like they could be prone to cracking, especially the lower one. I would expect it to crack at the root and bend out of engagement. I recommend changing it to stainless along with a small wear pad on the strut also in stainless.
Lock dog galling, creep, hardened tool steel sear at pall. Good stuff Sven offered a two step self tightening and self cleaning angles.
In general on YT I'm dubious of decisions like the one you bring up but, these guys are really doing their homework. That being said, I too hope they change the latch component to something more durable than aluminum... It would be such a minor weight cost for a huge improvement in longevity/durability.
@@FiferSkipper I'm sure the latch they designed is Technically fine. I'm sure it would hold up for hundreds of hours and gear cycles. I'm also Very sure I'd take the ~3lb weight penalty. They could make it out of forged 7075-t6 type 3 hard anodized, probably would cost 3 times as much as stainless. Even the 7075 would possibly need to get dye-pen tested at annual. I'm sure the gear is very light but that latch is a real good concentration of Any forces available.
The video shows that the latch engages a pin (presumably steel) on the gear, not the aluminum gear component directly.
Hi guys, fantastic progress and attention to detail, however, I have a question. You demonstrated the half gear for the landing strut, will there be TWO half gears per strut, ie one on each side of that securing "pin" rod that holds the gear??? I don't think one per landing gear strut is sufficient due to the torque factor on only one side of each strut.
Many thanks for bringing us along on this epic engineering journey.
Regards from South Africa
The pilot can't see the gear. There should be a position sensor and a lock sensor and a small 4 inch display in the cockpit showing the gear position and lock status with page 2 showing a camera view of the gear. In bad weather or if the gear hardware gets bent the pilot can move to make a decision for a gear up landing.
Electric (rather than hydraulic) brake actuation may be easier to route, and possibly lighter weight?
As a certified technician, with the "what if..." hat on;
In case of MLG actuator(motor) failure, and manual down-release (which you have covered, which is good) is needed , how are you going to ensure down-lock when the leg has to move against air-drag, instead of being extended by air-drag?
I'm also a bit worried about the loads on the what-would-have-been a drag strut/brace, which in this case seems to be under compressive load during breaking instead of under tension (which is more stable) especially considering the lock being so close to the center of rotation, which will put it under great force if the brace was to come even slightly out of center during compressive load.
Also, there will be resistance from the motor.
There is a gas spring connected to each gear strut to push it down against aerodynamic loads and into the down locked position. This wasn't discussed in the video, but it's basically the same arrangement on the nose gear which we have shown in earlier videos. The drag links can experience either tension or compression depending on the specific landing or braking conditions you are analyzing. The drag link carries essentially all the load to stabilize the strut while the lock pin is very lightly loaded since it just constrains the upper drag link in a straight line with the load during braking or initial wheel spin up on touchdown. Thanks for checking out the video and for the extra set of eyes on the design! :)
The resistance from the retract motor was a hurdle we had to overcome when we were designing in the emergency extend functionality. The mechanical disengage of the lock latch is tied into the retract motor to decouple the motor from the strut assembly so the resistance of back driving the retract motor doesn't prevent the strut from making it to the down locked position. We have the same architecture in the nose gear system.
@@DarkAeroInc Awesome. You are definitely putting some weight budget into the landing gear systems. Landing gear handling is sometimes one of the greater unknowns - be interesting to see model matches tested behavior (less concerned about raise / drop, more just feeling on landing / takeoff / taxi etc.)
For the final design of the fuel delivery system for EFI engine, have you considered using a header tank where the dual fuel pumps and pressure regulators are located in the header tank? This is auto technology where the pumps are kept cool, uses less amps, and eliminates a return line from the engine since the regulator is in the header tank. This would also eliminate vapor lock, wouldn’t it?
What will the landing gear testing program look like for your dream machine?
This transperancy in the build process is soo unique and the future of manufacturing. You people are soo ahead of the curve.
Hey thanks for showing us your work and explaining processes and designs.
looking good. God Bless Ukraine.
One of the hardest thing to do as a manufacturing or engineering group is to determine when too much engineering is going into a product. That very concept was what made Burt Rutan a genius. It get even more difficult when money is not an object.
The Chinese are copying all of your work and will have a exact copy at a quarter the price on the market before guys release
will the gear be able to unlock from the down position with weight on the assembly, or will it have to be either airborne or on jacks to unlock?
Just out of curiosity - you guys seem to have thought of everything-- why not winglets?
When is this aircraft going to fly? What engineering and mechanical issues are preventing it from flight testing?
Are you using steel bushings in the drag links at the pivot point were the bolt goes through?
Keep up the great work fellas. I can’t wait to see her fly.
Hi guys. Electrical engineer here. My RUclips overlords stumbled me onto this video. This time they picked it right. Your project looks awesome! Got to go back now and root out all the earlier videos. Can't wait to see what comes next.
How we all miss Donald Trump, so, deeply, ..
Other? Answer- propeller and oil system
First you have to sit on it and then spin the blades right?
I check up on you guys once in a while. Pro from start to finish. Keep rocking it guys, very well done.
The quality of design and workmanship is truly wonderful. Even the temporary fuel tank solution is a work of art. Just one thought though, and I appreciate 3D aerodynamic design on what is, whilst most beautiful, still an aeroplane aimed at the self-build market. Is there perhaps a more aerodynamic, efficient and aesthetically pleasing solution you could offer for the wing tips? That’s not a criticism, your design work is absolutely exquisite, but just a question that I’m sure you’ve already answered in your own minds. David
Hi team .Greeting from Switzerland…been in engines marketing all my life, Cat but not Cummins !!!! To me your Darkaero design is not only good for a speed and long haul private market but with the specific large wing full tank design, the concept is also well suited to fit one of those new small turboprop (cruise missile engine derivative.. light helicopters start using those extensively) to produce a brand new intensive basic two side by side seats army trainer. Range is less critical for training and turboprop engine lower weigh offsets a larger fuel flow but not that much higher with lower drag flying high. Mandatory is an outstanding workhorse like old PT6a but much smaller, around 250-280 hp continuous power. .the maintenance and downtime would be minimal…and planes using economical jet fuel…many Air forces around the world are using over 900 old aluminium SF260 for basic and semi advanced training and with age, they all became replaceable by such a modern cost effective composite airframe with a modern CAPS cirrus parachute system and no individual parachute requirement. It outperforms easely in performance and productivity an electric winged wagon…Below a 10 mio$ PC21 with a huge 1600hp turboprop. there are plenty of training hours to log with a modern performing side by side very economical twin seater and not many candidates are that well adapted for it..but maybe it takes to JV with an advanced trainer producer, turboprop specialist, Pilatus Embraer etc with an existing ww army market coverage to be in their portfolio.. Philgood
New Shop??? That's probably exciting and stressful at the same time.
Was hoping you could do a video on your dual fuel pump set up. I've heard of a couple planes going down due to dual pump set ups and apparently it's possible for the pump to start pulling from the other pump instead the fuel tank. Also seen this issue in a car with dual pumps. The car issue was resolved with one way check valves.
Hi, the fuel pumps are currently set up with an on-on toggle switch to only run one at a time to avoid any potential feedback issues between the pumps.
Your videos are always great and it is obvious that you care about producing high-quality footage.
That being said, my guess is that your audience would still appreciate slightly lower quality videos if we were able to get them a little more frequently.
Otherwise, awesome build and thanks again for sharing with the YT community. I'm looking forward to buying my kit from you in a few years...
I'm sure you guys have run the calculations and simulations, but it's hard to picture such a small latch handling the forces involved on the gear. I guess that's a testament to the engineering prowess of your team.
The drag link is the structure that constrains the gear strut, not the latch. The forces that are trying to pivot the gear struts pass through the drag links so it is the drag links that are doing all the work. The latches only hold the drag links in the correct orientation so the forces on the latches are much smaller than the forces on the drag links.
If the main gear can be deployed by pulling a lever in the cockpit and falling by gravity, what does the electric actuator accomplish?
[Edit: okay, I figured it out. Electric retract.]
I love the noises the machined parts make when they go together. You can hear the machining marks on the pivot pin as they slide into the trunnion.
What software did you use to conduct your FEA of the gear lock latches? I am doing my doctorate in polymer based additive FEA and am always curious as to others approaches.
Hi. Good progress so far and congratulations on the new shop. When building the plane how do you document your progress ? Since with all the back and forth involved in releasing a prototype how do you establish a streamlined process.
You might have mentioned it already, but do you have two ECUs for redundancy? Or am I missing the purpose of having those two ecu bulkhead fittings?
Yes, we have two ECUs in the prototype aircraft for redundancy. The engine can be configured with either one or two ECUs.
@@DarkAeroInc I don't know about everyone else, but I'd love to understand more about redundancy in systems for aerospace.
Finally I love following up on this project. Keep it up.👍🏻
Great design and workmanship! Thank you for bringing us all along. Excited to see the final product.
SS-Ti = galvanic corrosion... ?
Will it FLY in time for Oshkosh ?
So the failure part is the “little hook”.
So are braking forces going through that latch?
Braking forces go through the drag links. The latch only stabilizes the drag links to keep them from folding.
@@DarkAeroInc Makes sense. This is a very exciting aircraft! Long range, high speed is what I want.
Interesting point about the effect of engine thrust/hard braking on the rearward folding gear. Your down-latch is a bit more "critical" than usual.
Great to see you back. Exciting times. Can’t wait to see her fired up. 🇨🇦
This is amazing!
It's been a minute since you guys posted a video. I figured you guys were working hard.
Contact..now swing that prop
This is extremely cool!
fantastic !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!¨
Still a complex
Regarding engine electric connections plate: Consider making one of the battery lugs left hand thread. This will prevent reverse polarity connection.
How? It will only prevent you from switching the bolt, or nut around, not the ring-terminals themselves.
There is however a tried and working solution to this, different size stud and terminal for positive and negative ;)
In case Red and Black (or green) don’t work?
@@tomcoryell hehe
Beautiful machining, they even sound good when fitting together.
Encourage you to do your emergency gear drop test at different bank angles, g loadings, etc. or, at least post what it was tested at in the emergency boldface.
nice one part two jobs!
Incredible looking aircraft and components 🤙
I'm curious - how many unique parts (non off the shelf ) are in the plane?
I still wana know how you climb aboard. Looks very high.
Studs
I know nothing about what you guys are doing but it looks very impressive.
Awesome progress! Can't wait to see her spinnin' on her own 😀
No header tank?
Mechanical landing gear always gives me pause. Granted, it’s always lighter than electro/hydraulic, but the need for your uplocks, downlocks, secondary release mechanisms, specialty gears, etc kind of equals that out. With hydraulic, no locks just over-center links and a simple valve to equalize the pressures drops the gear with gravity. I too, wish to find out how your gear swings forward, past vertical during free fall. I see no other way than a moderate to severe pitch up to minimum flying speed, then a borderline-aerobatic push over. G’s alone won’t do it because the gear will always want to swing straight downward. Would gas struts strong enough to overcome 75 mph wind put too much stress on the gear motor?
It has gas struts for extension.
I noticed there are tennis balls on all the wingtips, may I ask what corner you crunched that taught you?
Corner of my skull.
I have had a similar problem in the past 😂
Love y’all’s stuff looking forward to seeing it fly!!
Love the video. One thing that makes it so interesting is that all of you are good teachers!
With that lock on the gear for g load, what sort of spin and roll characteristics will the aircraft have? What sort of g limit would it be looking at?
Impressed!
Amazing
Awesome
Curious what the main gear doors will look like and how they’ll function. Haven’t seen any coverage on the design.
John, good question. The doors for the main gear are still something we are finalizing. We are planning on doing two to three doors for each main gear - one for the wheel area and one to two for the strut area.