Aliens?

[Rich]

Whilst out gardening this morning I heard a plane overhead and glanced up to look at it, well, I have never seen anything like it in my life, there was no fuselage behind the delta wings but there was on the front of them and traversing this was the "tail" of a normal aircraft, has anyone seen anything like this before?

regards,
Rich.

 

[Smudger]

Was it going backwards?

 

[Smudger]

Was it one of these?

 

[Rich]

SERIOUSLY ****, may God strike me down dead if I lie, what I have described, I saw, which caused me to turn on the laptop and ask the question immediately, it was not flying backwards but in the normal direction of the delta wings, I am baffled and don't really know how to google a question like this one.
regards,
Rich.

 

[Digit]

It's called a Canard Rich, which I think you'll find is French for Duck.
The vast majority of modern fighters have this configuration, including the Euro Fighter.
Aerodynamically it has certain advantages at high speed as the elevators operate in an airflow flow undisturbed by the wing. Theoretically such a configuration cannot be stalled, unlike the more conventional arrangement.
The idea has been around as long as aviation.

Roy.

 

[Smudger]

I googled for delta canard and looked at the images.

 

[Digit]

Doesn't have to be a Delta to be a Canard though ****, all that's required is a foreplane.
Canards have, or have had every type of wing plan. Straight, straight tapered, double tapered, high and low aspect ratios, swept back, even swept forward.
All early aircraft were Canards in fact starting, with the Wright Flyer, through the Bristol Box Kite upto the SAAB Gripen and the American F22.

Roy.

 

[Rich]

Thanks for the info chaps, I can get back to gardening now, knowing that we are not being invaded, =D>

Rich.

 

[Smudger]

I know about canards - I googled delta as well because Rich said the main planes were delta shaped.

 

[RogerM]

I think they call them canards because "they can'ardly fly"!

One advantage is that the canards have positive lift, which supplements that provided by the wings, whereas a conventional rear tailplane has negative lift ( i.e. a down force) which negates some of the lift provided by the wings. As previously pointed out, this configuration has very gentle stall characteristics because the canard has a higher "angle of attack" than the main wing and will therefore stall first, dropping the nose and preventing the main wing stalling. A disadvantage is that it disturbs the airflow going over the main wing.

 

[mr]

I think they call them canards because "they can'ardly fly"!

Moving to a different vehicle momentarily does any one else recall Rolls Royce being referred to as Rolls Canardly or was it just my grandfather?
As in Rolls down the hill but Canardly get up again.

Cheers Mike

 

[Digit]

Now I feel bloody old again. BSA = Bloody Sore Arse, FVQ shock absorber= Fail Very Quickly, LOTUS = Lots Of Trouble, Usual Serious, Joe Lucas = Prince of Darkness. Plus of course Moses was the world's first motorcyclist, The sound of his Triumph was heard throughout the land!
Happy days!

Roy.

 

[RogerM]

Now I feel bloody old again. BSA = Bloody Sore ****, FVQ shock absorber= Fail Very Quickly, LOTUS = Lots Of Trouble, Usual Serious, Joe Lucas = Prince of Darkness. Plus of course Moses was the world's first motorcyclist, The sound of his Triumph was heard throughout the land!
Happy days!

Roy.

NVQ - Not Very Qualified :lol:

 

[chunkolini]

Toys, mere toys, Canards are kind of fun, but these babies are the real thing, see link below. (if it works) then go on Utube and look for film of the BIG ekranpolan. Cold war dinosaurs, Love this technology

http://www.vincelewis.net/ekranoplan.html

Chunko'.

 

[Digit]

A fantastic concept Chunko that should have been developed further IMO.

Roy.

 

[woody67]

of course Moses was the world's first motorcyclist, The sound of his Triumph was heard throughout the land!

Moses was indeed the first motorcyclist Roy - Jesus was the first driver - he went up the mountain in his Triumph! :wink:

Mark

 

[Vormulac]

My father designed canard-wing aircraft in the 70's/80's and built several functioning proof-of-concept Ekranoplans and channel-wing aircraft as well. Great fun.