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a brief rundown on flight controls

A project log for single stage to orbit robotic space plane

single stage to orbit home built space plane multi configurable morphing wing lifting body autonomous robotic or manned

starlordstarlord 04/08/2018 at 02:560 Comments

lets talk flight controls as can be seen from the cad model this bird uses  twin tail fins. that particular tail fin is not the final version I kind of cheesed that one out the details and theory on the tail I am keeping my tails well in board to keep them as cool as possible un like other designs as they have them on the outer edges of the fuselage I made that decision taking the home build nature of the ship in to account the root or base of the tail will house the actuators to move the fin on the final version im using a much larger base which will act as a stationery fin in its self for redundancy in case the moveable fin fails you will still have some stability also im debating on having any camber to the fin like other designs or have a adjustable system im using two split panels on top and bottom for altitude control with smaller trim tabs on outer edges lets go back to the tail for a minute as said im using a canard wind pack these canards usually don't employ a traditional rear tail as the dual wing acts as the attitude control this has caused problems in some canard planes with uncontrollable unrecoverable spin with the heavy fuel hauling nature of the bird I was pondering having a extendable  tail and fin system on a retractable boom so that it extends out the back of the ship and retracts either under the wing pact fairing or on top in its currant position a boom system could tie in with the wing pact rail but were talking a lot of extra weight these options can be explored in fight test scale models but im leaning to keep it simple and lite lets talk in orbit flight control most space craft use a thruster system small reaction rockets built in to the ship in different areas to move the ship in differing directions some have quit a few plumed in all over the bird and in some places that could cause problems on reentry my proposal would be a thruster system mounted on a retractable boom possibly the air to air refueling boom or a robot arm the advantage is it can be retracted under the wing pact fairing for protection you can use fewer thrusters easer to repair replace and maintain but most of all weight savings. think the early space walkers had a hand held thruster system to move around with before they came up with there fancy jet pack.                                     

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