Thursday 8 February 2024

the World's Longest Aircraft

Until it was destroyed last year, the title of the world's longest (heavier-than-air) aircraft belonged to the Antonov An-225 Mriya at 84m. Today it's the Boeing 747-8 at just 76.4m.


I will now present a plan to build and fly a 100m long aircraft - roughly the length of a football pitch.

The concept is simple - the implementation will be more complicated.

There are two elements to the aircraft:

1. The Truss

Meet Liz, the backbone of the project. 

This is a lightweight triangular truss that can be connected, end-to-end, to other identical trusses, making one very long truss.100m long. 

It probably won't be this exact aluminium truss, as it's quite heavy, but it might look a bit like this. Maybe it'll be made from carbon fibre? Maybe 3D printed? Whatever it is, it needs to be rigid, so it counts as a single aircraft.

2. Multi-rotor parts

Lots of them: Batteries, ESCs, motors, accelerometers, and at least one flight controller and RC receiver.

Hundreds of motors and propellers will be attached to the truss making a massive multi-rotor and the longest aircraft in the world.

The truss doesn't need to be super strong if the lift is spread along the length of the airframe. It doesn't need to fly very far, or high.

The exact quantity and configuration of these parts will depend on the weight of the trusses. Maybe the motors and props will be on arms connected to the truss? Maybe there will be primary and secondary flight controllers? Maybe they are all peers that share data? Twisting and vibration are likely to be issues.

The challenge is to build and fly a 100m long truss for no reason other than to claim the title of World's Longest Aircraft.

Funding should be easy - drone suppliers will be queuing up to lend us the drone parts in exchange for the guaranteed publicity. 

The truss could be more tricky - maybe square drainpipe would be cheaper? 

Here's the plan:

1 Contact Guiness Book of Records and confirm this would count as the world's longest aircraft.

2 See if Tom Stanton wants in.

3 Build and fly it

4 Go down in history as the British designers and pilots of the world's longest aircraft.

If possible I'd like this to be a British project. Maybe it will inspire other people to go longer? Could the longest aircraft Is a 1km aircraft possible?

Let's do this!!!


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