The Bonney Gull

Ferry_vO said:
Slightly OT, but I remember a gigantic flying wing and a flying submarine too? What happened to those projects?
Click to expand...

I lost the hard drives in both computers at home a few years ago at the same time they changed out my computer at work. The end result is that I have been away from gmax and my other modeling tools for a couple of years or so.

I picked up the Bonney Gull to get myself to learn gmax, DXTBmp, Air Editor, and the various modeling tools once again. The Bonney Gull won't be something hyper-detailed because the information is just not there; but it has been a fun project that provided the motivation to learn it all over again.

The Ushakov LPL flying submarine will not be far behind. I have confirmed that it works in FSX as well; so I want to finish the texturing work in the VC so they don't appear black; and Peperez has tweaked the flight dynamics and added some new textures. Won't take long now that I am back in the swing of things; if things start to get too complicated on animating the Gull's wings, I may shove it back in the hanger and finish up the LPL instead.

I modeled the interior spaces of the Airliner No. 4 giant flying boat; but the cockpit space itself is empty. I started work on building the cockpit area in a seperate gmax file to merge with the rest of the model just prior to the disk crash. I need to finish it and roll it in; hoping I don't run out of polygons in the process. Peperez has also tweaked the flight dynamics files for it, but I am consistantly having trouble lifting off the water in FS2004. So, it needs a little work there. Hurricane 91 has also been kind enough to supply an instrument panel which also needs to be folded into the project. Finally, I want to change the exterior windows for the CFS2 version so they will be opaque rather than solid black.

So, Airliner No. 4 will be after the LPL. I am ordering myself not to start any more projects before they are finished. I mean it. Really. :wavey:

-James
 
I know the video at the beginning of the thread is not very clear but after paying particular attention to look for wing rotation, it does look like he is monkeying with the wing rotation however minutely as he appears to be testing or feeling it out which is a natural tendancy for many engineers or designers to test things.

In the video focus on the inboard trailing edge, next to the fuselage and it appears to moving ever so slightly up and down and in unison with the aircraft's porpoising movement. Keep in mind that such a large surface such as an entire wing doesn't need to move much to get a reaction at speed.
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A theory I have been toying around with is that the wing was moving as you described; not because Bonney was moving it, but because it was it was stucturally too weak or flimsey.

I found a treasure trove of contemporary newspaper articles that shed some more light into the color of the Bonney Gull as well as how it was supposed to work at:

http://www.spoonercentral.com/knapp/Bunny.html

Of particular interest is the following clipping, which contains theories from observers on the scene as to what happened:

View attachment 46824


Like phantomx1, one engineer stated that the trailing edge was too flexible, and it's movement caused lift on the wing to be destroyed.

As the following image and my model shows, the wing rotated about what I assume was a ball joint at roughly the mid-point of the wing:

View attachment 46825

However, the center of lift for an airfoil is usually at a 1/3 the chord of the wing from the leading edge. I wonder if the linkages you see here were unable to keep the wing from rotating upward at the leading edge on it's own; the result would have been additional lift at first, followed by a stall. That would explain why in the video you see the Gull rise at first, then plunge to the ground.

One thing I have yet to figure out is where the fuel tank or tanks were. The Popular Science article implied that it was the tank you see under the engine in the above picture. But, when you model the tank and measure it's volume, it could only hold about 12-15 gallons of fuel. That is not never much; most planes held at least 40 gallons, and usually much more. The post-crash photos show that the space above the wing held the linkages and hydraulics for the wings; that only leaves the space under the wings as a possible location.

Was out of town last weekend and still playing catchup; so nothing in the way of progress to show. But the articles in the above links give me some material to work with.

-James
 
I meant to add that I am experiencing one problem; maybe somebody can help me with it:

The navigation lights will not come on. If I switch to another plane, turn the lights on, then switch back to the Gull, the lights stay on. I can then turn them off and on. Any idea what is going on? I compared the flight dynamic files and the panel file to my Early Fairchild series; and nothing looks different other than position. Thanks in advance for any help.

-James
 
James,
Looked at lights and see where you have them listed starting with 'light.1='. It should start with 'light.0'=, then 'light.1=', etc. See below.

[LIGHTS]
//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit
light.0=4, 1.147, 0.000, 1.365, fx_vclight,
light.1=2, 6.350, -1.800, -0.250, fx_Moth_exhaust,
light.2=2, 6.350, 1.800, -0.250, fx_Moth_exhaust,

And you should add a ',' at end of each light to 'tie' them together. Cheers.
Chuck B
Napamule
 
Thanks Vin.

Chuck; thanks for pointing that out. I fixed the lights section; but still no joy. Here is how it looks now:

[LIGHTS]
//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit
light.0 = 3, 2.580, -11.2, 1.300, fx_navred,
light.1 = 3, 2.580, 11.2, 1.300, fx_navgre,
light.2 = 3, -10.52, 0, 1.217, fx_navwhi,
light.3 = 4, -3.20, 0, 1.034, fx_vclight,
light.4 = 2, 1.974, 0, -4.00, fx_RobJcruise,

-James
 
What color was the Bonney Gull? It would seem like I am out of luck, since all of the pictures are black and white. I made some guesses about the color; but that would seem to be it.

But, one of the articles I mentioned in the previous thread stated that the fusalage was cream colored. Then, I remembered this model of the Bonney Gull, most likely by Bonney himself, that surfaced recently. Between the reference to the cream color and my previous guesses; this should get us close to the prototype.



So here is the newly recolored Bonney Gull:



Next, I began cutting up the wing into it's various parts. There is a seperate wing root piece at the front of the wing, what was the flexible trailing edge (which may have caused the crash) that allowed for variable camber; which I am modeling as flaps, and the ailerons. The outter tips, which Bonney called "pinions", could swing 20 degrees forward and back. They are currently seperate, but I need to figure out how to model variable sweep wings to make them work.

Finally, one of the articles states that the wing had an incidence of ten degrees, and rotated up 35 degrees. I nearly got it right (10 degree incidence but rotated up 33 degrees), so I was able to model it correctly. Here it is with the wing rotated 35 degrees up as a speed brake, the flaps down 20 degrees, and the right aileron up.



Finally, one more WIP shot, along with a photograph of the actual from aerofiles to check our progress against. The canopy frame needs some more work before I can cut the door out. The linkages that made the wing fold along with rotating it and the folding event itself needs to be modeled; along with a few other external details before moving inside to finish the VC.



View attachment 47510

-James
 
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