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Len and Bill take a break
from building to pose by one of the wind sections. The plank wing
breaks into 3 8 foot section for transport, and the wing tips can be
unbolted.
Many of these pictures can be clicked
on for a higher resolution image. |
| Here's the full wing in
Bill's driveway. The basic structure of the wing is complete, and
now Bill and Len need to work on attaching the control surfaces and
making the control linkages. |
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This picture shows the
amount of work that went into making the wings. The box spar is luan
plywood coated with fiberglass. The spars themselves are luan
plywood. wires are used to strengthen the structure. |
| Designated pilot Bob
Buerger has plenty of what this sign refers to.
The Red Bull people want to pick up
every plane that flies off their ramp with a crane, and put them
into a giant floating dumpster. We'll need help to save this plane
so we can re-use it! |
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The Red Bull folks were
kind enough to drop off an entire case of their beverage. Urp.
Currently it's not known if there
will be time to built the pedal powered catapult, or even to add
cranks to the plane, so it may be a hand assisted launch!
Launch date is 8/9/03! |
8/5/03
Bob Buerger has been hard at work building the bike portion of Der
Fledermaus. This bike features an aluminum frame and steel rear
stays. Steering while on the ground will be accomplished through
under seat steering, as for safety's sake the Red Bull folks don't
want anything to get in the way when the rider hits the water. |
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In this picture a template
shows where the bike will be in relationship to the wing.
It looks like Bob and Bill will get
the drivetrain in place in time for the event, so pilot Bob will be
able to crank this thing right over the edge. |
| An aluminum skin was added
to the wings leading edges to provide some rigidity before covering
it in shrink wrap. |
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The wing tip vertical
stabilizers have been covered in shrink wrap. Bob is working on
obtaining some nice graphics to be placed on the stabilizers
It has been decided to perform a rope
launch, using pulleys so that the launchers are pulling in the same
direction as the plane, and behind it. |
| This picture shows the
wing connector being test fit. The wing connector holds the wing
sections together, you can see that it places the outer wing segments
at a slight angle for added stability.
Len, Bill, and Bob are now building
at a frenzied pace.
The whole team needs to be downtown
with the plane on Friday at 2:00pm! |
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8/7/03
The WISIL flugtag team has covered the two outer wings with marine
shrink wrap, and is hard at work on the controls. |
| Pilot Bob Buerger taps the
bracket to hold the bike onto the wing spar. |
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Backup Pilot Jon Royer
gives the wing connector a test fit after sanding. |
8/8/03
The day before the Flugtag all the crews and vehicles were required
to be at the event to sign in and show that the vehicle exists. My
wife and I got there and waited for the rest of the crew to arrive
with the plane.
This picture shows the ramp all the
vehicles will be launched from, which was floating on a barge in
Monroe Harbor. |
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Competitors started to
arrive and put their crafts together.
Where is the WISIL crew? true to
form, they are still back at Bill's garage working on the plane. |
| Here's the Pegausus entry.
Pretty horsie...
My wife and I go off to register at
the hotel (which Red Bull kindly provided) and come back a couple
hours later. |
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Larry the lobster gets a
few tweaks |
| This entry brought
everything but the kitchen sink. Oh wait no there it is! |
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Here's the "Back to
the Flugtag" entry with their custom (cardboard) Delorean. |
| These guys did a beautiful
job of duplicating the Da Vinci flyer.
Eventually the sleep deprived WISIL
team did show up, got registered, unloaded the plane parts, and then
were off to the hotel to catch some sleep. Red Bull managed to get
us shorted on beds, so Len ended up sleeping in a chair. |
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8/9/03 - Flugtag (Fly
Day)
Bill Murphy works to attach the wing in the cramped quarters.
The Fledermaus was about twice as wide as the space given for us to
set up in.
We were right in front of a speaker
and the music was so loud that we could not here each other yelling
while putting the plane together.
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| Omigosh look at all the
people. Jon and Bob talk to people about the plane. A huge entry
looms in the background |
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With the wings attached,
Bill and Bob start work on the control mechanism. Len holds the wing
up.
People keep piling in. |
| The Fledermaus glider is
all put together for the first time ever, barely hours before the
scheduled flight time.
We worked on getting the pulley
system together which would be used in conjunction with Bob's pedal
power to get the craft up to the required 20MPH take off speed. |
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This picture shows the launch of a glider with the head and body of coach
Ditka being ridden by a Bears quarterback after doing the "Super bowl
Shuffle". Picture by Dan Glatch. |
| This was a beautifully
created and authenic looking reproduction of the DaVinci
glider. Look. It flies! (a liitle). Picture by Dan Glatch. |
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This picture shows an entry that survived it's flight
intact. The crew's preflight show was dancing to music as they put the hot dog and toppings on
the bun. Picture by Dan Glatch. |
| This picture shows a candy
(one of the crew in a colored suit) jumping out of the dispenser after the head (Chicago Bull) was
lifted. After all all the candy was dispensed, the dispenser was pushed into the water (went straight down).
Picture by Dan Glatch. |
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Here's the commode - o -
dragon. This picture shows the skit done before launch; as the dragon
belches smoke (fire extinguisher dust) the crew dances around the
toilet plane dressed as a toilet paper roll, a plunger, a deodorant tablet, and a maid.
Picture by Dan Glatch. |
| Here's the "Can in the Clouds" entry based on the Simpson's
Duff beer can with wings--it went only about 3' out, but had a crowd-pleasing
crash. Picture by Dan Glatch. |
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OK, time for us to fly!
Here's Bob being interviewed on the Jumbotron screen with the Chicago skyline in the background.
Picture by Dan Glatch. |
| Here's Bob being interviewed on the Jumbotron screen
with Warren holding the CAN FLY sign in the background. Picture by
Dan Glatch. |
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The assembled but never
before tested Fledermaus glider is on the ramp, and the launch crew
scurries around setting up the pulley system. Warren holds a sign
asserting that it can fly...
Contestants were supposed to have a
"skit" and a soundtrack. The WISIL team didn't really have
time to come up with anything. So we just launched it. |
| Bob gets up to to speed
before before flying off the ramp. It turned out that the CG was too
far forward, so not much actual flying occurred. Bob was fine,
though was driven about 3 ft under water by the force of the impact.
Picture by Dan Glatch.
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Here's Bob doing his
impression of a dive bomber. Pull up! Pull up! The plane actually
did fly a little. Picture by Dan
Glatch. |
| Here's the
Fledermaus on its way down as viewed on the Jumbotron from the front
in instant replay. Picture by Dan Glatch. |
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Bob gets interviewed after being pulled out of the
lake. How do you feel after going
for a swim in the same water that flows by the beaches closed
because of high e-coli levels? Picture by Dan Glatch. |
| This shows the view from the back of the crowd of thousands that
watched. The t-shirt in foreground is from Flugtag, it says "We came, We saw, We sank".
Picture by Dan Glatch. |
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After the
"flight", the Fledermaus is towed by a boat to be wrecked
or saved. Hey, it still looks great! Picture
by Dan Glatch. |
| We chose to save it, but
as seen here, it's about to become fairly wrecked. It was in pretty
good shape until it was lifted out of the water. The wings had
filled with water, so it broke apart shortly after this photo was
taken. Most of the entries were lifted straight in a huge dumpster.
Picture by Dan Glatch. |
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Here's Bill attending to the bicycle portion of the
FM. You can still see a chunk of the wing spar under the seat. Picture
by Dan Glatch. |
| No, we didn't win. Yes, we
had a lot of fun anyway. What was left of the plane was disassembled
to prepare it for transport back to Bill's garage. |
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A post mortem was
performed while the mass quantities of spectators file by on the
bike path.
Will it ever fly again? It would need
major repairs, but it's possible... |
