Concrete wing aircraft

Sac Arrow

Touchdown! Greaser!
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I mean, why not? We are talking low wing only. Think about it. You walk on it. Do you see non-skid tape attached to sidewalks? Hell no!

I mean come on, there are boats made out of concrete. The stuff doesn't rust. Compressive strength is through the roof.

And it's been done before. So why isn't it more popular?
 
The mythbusters did a show on that also
 
yeah...compressive strength is great....but tensile...not so much....


re. boats....If you're not familiar with it....do a google search for images of the SS Sapona
 
From the linked article: "It did not soar. It did not travel far. It did not get more than a few inches off the ground, and it did not fly straight. It flipped over and crashed, is what it did. But it got off the ground, flew, landed, and survived!"

Maybe that's why?
 
Been done.

http://www.luft46.com/missile/bv246.html

"A very interesting design feature was that the wings were constructed of die-cast concrete"
bv246-7.jpg
 
I mean, why not? We are talking low wing only. Think about it. You walk on it. Do you see non-skid tape attached to sidewalks? Hell no!

I mean come on, there are boats made out of concrete. The stuff doesn't rust. Compressive strength is through the roof.

And it's been done before. So why isn't it more popular?

Yes. Prestressed or post tension would be the ticket. What could go wrong?
 
because with the FAA you need hours and hours of trials, test runs, documentation, proven numbers, etc, that it'll fly. basically, in order for it to be airworthy, you'd need to supply concrete evidence.
If someone were to aggregate the results, they'd cement their place in history.
 
Are you sure you don't have some of that concrete in your head?
 
If you entrain air in the concrete, it would be lighter. If you chip off a cigarette's weight, it would be a cigarette lighter!
 
Concrete sail boats last forever in salt water, imagine the infinite neglect you could have with a concrete plane on the ramp.
 
Ok…now I’m imagining all the sea movies I’ve ever seen with “helium voice”…
“Give me a ping, Vasili. One ping only, please.”

Totally off topic (but it is POA), a question for anyone who has been on a submarine, can you actually here the sonar pings like in the movie?
 
Well, hell, if you can make overshoes out of it...
 
With enough thrust, anything will fly.
 
Totally off topic (but it is POA), a question for anyone who has been on a submarine, can you actually here the sonar pings like in the movie?
already commented by others....and while not a submarine I have second hand confirmation....my dad was Coast Guard. I remember him telling stories of his time at Ocean Station Victor onboard a weather ship (USCGC Winnebago). I guess they'd tool around in that area for a month or so, taking periodic sea water samples, and probably just generally record weather and monitor radios I suppose.... anyway, I remember him telling the story many times of laying in his bunk trying to sleep listening to the active sonar depth sounder pinging .... the way he tells it it was quite loud & there was a long time period between the ping and the echo return out there in the deep middle of the Pacific
 
You can hear active sonar underwater, but it doesn't sound like a ping anymore. It's a longer, variable frequency tone.
 
You can hear active sonar underwater, but it doesn't sound like a ping anymore. It's a longer, variable frequency tone.

Yeah, but hearing Sean Connery deliver the line "One longer, variable frequency tone only." just wouldn't have been the same.
 
Soviets had old technology ;D
 
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