Posted by Craig Burden on October 10, 2010 at 12:55am
Hey guys, im planning a ambitious project, i want to send a uav to space! by strapping a small fibreglass uav underneath a weather balloon with a servo release to release it at a predetermined altitude. At witch time the uav glides to a specifyed waypoint for landing. i know about the winds of up to 100mph, but i figaur you just dive through that zone as quickly as possible. i dont think a motor is needed as think of how far you could glide from 20+km in the air! Any ideas? unforseen problems?
so it is possible? in that video where the guy let the orange pod go up it only landed 30km away and even with a really bad glide ratio of 1:1 you could do it.
Hi,I too plan to do like you.I will use an autopilot to cut the baloon conection and then try to navigate the plane back home, without using an engine.
If we forget all aviation rules etc. It is possible to launch UAV from balloon but I hardly would say that you can go up to space with a balloon. Anyways distance that your UAV or glider can travel really depends on it's glide ratio. McDonnel MD-11 had glide ratio of 16-18 if i remember correctly, Cesna 260 around 15, Paragliders around 7-8, Highest sail planes can reach all the way to 1 : 60-70 ratios. So it's really impossible to say it in simple way, you need to find out by testing unless you have manufacturer information and test results from UAV frame that you plan to use.
For landing calculation you need to pay attention to many issues like high altitude winds, jet streams on 8-12km alt which can be even 800km/h, another really important issue you need to calculate is earth rotation. Rotation speed varies on your location. On equator it's about 1.600 km/h. So if you take something directly our from earth center, keep it up for one hour and then land on same line. Distance difference on takeoff and landing area is about 1600km.. If you are at at equator. Even on latitude area line New York, surface travel speed is still over 1000km/h.
So at day of launch, you need to be sure that winds are opposite than rotation of earth or your UAV might end....rather far :)
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For landing calculation you need to pay attention to many issues like high altitude winds, jet streams on 8-12km alt which can be even 800km/h, another really important issue you need to calculate is earth rotation. Rotation speed varies on your location. On equator it's about 1.600 km/h. So if you take something directly our from earth center, keep it up for one hour and then land on same line. Distance difference on takeoff and landing area is about 1600km.. If you are at at equator. Even on latitude area line New York, surface travel speed is still over 1000km/h.
So at day of launch, you need to be sure that winds are opposite than rotation of earth or your UAV might end....rather far :)