Sky Pirate Flying Dinghy - Finished Pics Pg9.

[PR19_Kit]

Oooooh, he's SO scientific! 

[NARSES2]

Oooooh, he's SO scientific! 

Way over my head, as will be the dinghy if said calculations are correct 

[zenrat]

At sea level Bootstrapium boils at 250K.
The buoyancy chambers are not true spheres but spheroids approx 2m x 2m x 4m.
Lift of gaseous bootstrapium is relative to number of atoms so a tank at 2atm has twice the bouyancy of one at 1atm.  This means that buoyancy can be controlled by pumping bootstrapium between a storage tank where it is under enough pressure to remain liquid and buoyancy chambers where it is a gas - no need for ballast in the form of sand bags or water and no need to vent gas to lose buoyancy.

No modelling today.  Went to the zoo.

[PR19_Kit]

Lift of gaseous bootstrapium is relative to number of atoms so a tank at 2atm has twice the bouyancy of one at 1atm.  This means that buoyancy can be controlled by pumping bootstrapium between a storage tank where it is under enough pressure to remain liquid and buoyancy chambers where it is a gas - no need for ballast in the form of sand bags or water and no need to vent gas to lose buoyancy.

Fiendish, and ingenious. 

[zenrat]

Lift of gaseous bootstrapium is relative to number of atoms so a tank at 2atm has twice the bouyancy of one at 1atm.  This means that buoyancy can be controlled by pumping bootstrapium between a storage tank where it is under enough pressure to remain liquid and buoyancy chambers where it is a gas - no need for ballast in the form of sand bags or water and no need to vent gas to lose buoyancy.

Fiendish, and ingenious. 

...and contrived so as to avoid finding bigger buoyancy chambers, fitting in ballast tanks or having to make 1/72 sand bags.


Of course, should one push the envelope too much and the gaseous bootstrapium in the buoyancy tanks condenses...

[zenrat]

No more pictures until the end.

The engine and prop are in place as is the rudder.  Weathering is underway as is the construction of a base.

[rickshaw]

No more pictures until the end.

The engine and prop are in place as is the rudder.  Weathering is underway as is the construction of a base.

One hopes it is a cloudy one!   

[zenrat]

It's a springy one.  A square of pine 90 x 90 x 19mm into which i will insert a length of wire bent into an inverted J with a hook on the end.  The dinghy hangs from the hook and should bounce gently when disturbed by the slipstream of passers by.  Hopefully it won't bounce right off.

Today I weathered the hull and attached the bootstrapium tank and the fuel tank.

[zenrat]

Very nearly done.
I have to put a decal on the base, paint and mount the gun, attach the pilot and his penguin, permanently attach the elevators and do some final bits of weathering.

[zenrat]

Sky Pirate's Flying Dinghy

Sky Pirate's Flying Dinghy - 19 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Back before Captain Fat Hamster, premier Sky Pirate of the Nullarbor Coast, took to heavier than air flight the tender of his dirigible was this flying dinghy, the Saucy Sue.

Sky Pirate's Flying Dinghy - 1 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Buoyed by twin bootstrapium lift tanks if was propelled by a Shvetsov M-63 radial engine driving a wooden propeller.

Sky Pirate's Flying Dinghy - 18 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Bootstrapium is a rare self-damping graviphobic element which is highly implosive as a gas, It is unremarkable and inert as a solid or liquid only showing the reason it is so highly sought after when, once in its gaseous state, each atom's electron orbit no longer interacts with those of its neighbours.  Removal of the dampening effect of this interaction brings out its intense graviphobic nature and it then generates unprecedented amounts of lift - up to 30g of buoyancy per litre has been recorded in laboratory conditions with 99% pure samples at atmospheric pressure.  As the amount of lift of gaseous bootstrapium is relative to the mass of gas a fixed volume at 2atm has twice the buoyancy than when it is at 1atm.  This means that as at sea level Bootstrapium boils at -23℃, buoyancy can be controlled by pumping bootstrapium between a storage tank where it is under enough pressure to remain liquid and buoyancy chambers where it is a gas - no need for ballast in the form of sand bags or water and no need to vent gas to lose buoyancy.  However, should the tanks be pressurised past the point where the gaseous bootstrapium condenses then there will be an immediate loss of buoyancy.  Additionally, should liquid bootstrapium expand too rapidly, through being pumped into buoyancy tank too rapidly or due to a tank failing for example, it will undergo reverse-sublimation turning directly and violently from a gas to a solid in an implosive reaction.
For insulative and electrostatic safety reasons (there is not enough space here to go into bootstrapium's unique electromagnetic properties) commercial bootstrapium buoyancy tanks are manufactured from copper electroplated with aluminium and then given a ceramic coating.  Due to the nature of ceramics this coating is prone to damage from impacts and also tends to wear through time from the contraction/expansion cycles experience during routine operation.  Some loss of ceramic is acceptable but too much exposed aluminium leads to the tanks being condemned.  Tanks with exposed copper are, under international lighter than air craft regulations, considered to be in danger of immediate failure and implosion and to be scrapped immediately.  Only a fool, a suicide or a madman would fly under them.

Sky Pirate's Flying Dinghy - 10 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
Sky Pirate's Flying Dinghy - 6 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

The Model
3d Printed dinghy from shapeways.
Engine from ICM Polikarpov I15-24.
Prop from Airfix Gloster Gladiator cut down and re-shaped.
Buoyancy tanks are Kinder Surprise capsules.
Pilot from a Hasegawa US Pilots and Crew set.
Everything else, including the penguin is scratch built or from the parts boxes.

Sky Pirate's Flying Dinghy - 13 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[PR19_Kit]

Absolutely OUTSTANDING Fred, a winner if ever I saw one! 

And as for the bootstrapium stuff, looks like a whole new science to me, I can see universities opening bootstrapium faculties just to study it. 

[NARSES2]

Glorious, no other word will do 

[Old Wombat]

Fantastically insane! love it!

[ericr]

 

[loupgarou]

Must be one of he weirdest builds in this forum's history!  (From the weirdest member    )