GyroPlane

July 25: I’ve finally ordered all (I hope) of the parts that I need. I’ve skimped a little bit on the some things (I opted to use some weaker brushless motors/batteries/ESCs that I already have to save money – it is a ‘prototype’, after all), and I really hope that won’t come back to haunt me in the future.

I’ve always loved gyroscopes – there’s just something magical about the way they behave. As such, I’ve always wanted to incorporate a really sweet gyroscope into one of my projects.

Enter GyroPlane.

GyroPlane is, essentially, a metal plate with a large-diamater wheel mounted inside. Said wheel is attached to a keyed rod which is in turn run through a bearing and mated with a smaller wheel, powered by a small (but powerful) brushless motor. This, as you can imagine, is the ‘sweet gyroscope’ part of the project. Additionally, there’s a fairly sizable, static wing mounted to the plate, as well as a good old Radio Shack project box that contains electronics, and serves as a mounting place for yet another brushless motor which powers the propeller. For yaw control (side-to-side), there is a rudder hanging below the project box, attached to a servo (guess where the servo is).

You’re probably saying “Alex, how the hell do you expect that to fly?!”. Truth is, I don’t. But it kind of makes sense…y’know…in theory. The idea is this: the sweet gyroscope/wheel will keep the whole setup oriented more or less in the position it started at in the axis perpendicular to the gyroscope’s axis of rotation – in other words, the plate should stay ‘level’ in flight. However, the gyroscope doesn’t resist motion in the axis parallel to its axis of rotation, so the plate can still spin on the axis perpendicular to the ground (and parallel to the gyroscope’s axis of rotation). That’s where the rudder comes in – it can make the plate rotate, which will set its heading. The lift, obviously, is coming from the wing.

If you’re confused, it’s probably my fault – once I get some picture up, it will be much easier to understand.

The way I’ve been writing this, you probably are thinking that I’ve already finished GyroPlane. Oh, but you’d be wrong! I haven’t even started. But the construction shouldn’t be (famous last words) too complex, and hopefully I’ll be able to show you guys something concrete within the coming weeks.

Also, even if I do build it, there is no guarantee that there isn’t some gaping hole in my logic, and that this thing won’t just crash and spark/fizzle/burn. I guess all I can really say is….stay tuned.

On another note, this gyroscope-in-a-plate (GyroPlate, perhaps?) offers an interesting platform for weird RC projects, and one I would like to try to utilize in the future…assuming it works the way I’m hoping it will. For example, the problem of a ‘inverted helicopter’ type thing is greatly reduced when you don’t have to worry about in-air stability. Imagine a craft with a single downward facing propeller, and two perpendicular gyroscopes (one horizontal and one vertical compared to the ground). Decreasing (and increasing?) the speed of the ‘vertical’ gyroscope should yield forward motion, as the propeller would be no longer be thrusting vertically. Similarly, decreasing (and increasing?) the speed of the ‘horizontal’ gyroscope would allow the craft to rotate in place.

Again, I’m not sure if any of that would work…but it would be damn cool if it did.