Comments on: Episode 66: Concrete Glider

By: Troy

Troy — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:04:28 +0000

The concrete canoe website in the link still looks like the most poorly designed website this side of 1995, almost 5 years later.

By: Chris Weiser

Chris Weiser — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:17:48 +0000

Re: Concrete Glider
The Germans built a few hundred gliders which had steel-skin airfoils filled with concrete. The craft, dubbed Hagelkorn (Hailstone), looked somewhat like a modern high-performance glider. Its glide ratio was relatively high, and the high weight of the airframe and explosives meant it would glide at high speed (a few hundred mph).
It was to be carried to altitude and released from the relative safety of the east side of the English Channel. A few were used, with some success.
One example is in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum collection.

By: Pryz Fytr

Pryz Fytr — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:48:40 +0000

Airspeed, airspeed, airspeed – the three things that these aircraft needed most. (Same with bamboo aeroplane.)

By: nathan

nathan — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 12:56:59 +0000

They should have made something with longer thinner wings(something that acually resembles a modern glider)that could be dragged behind a car and instead of supporting the concrete internally they should have wrapped it externally with carbon fiber. That way they could have made fairly large ultra thin wing and even could have made it in sections using the carbon fiber.

By: Toni

Toni — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 22:27:05 +0000

As a young child (10-12) I stood very close to the tracks and hung on to the pole of the crossing arms. I felt the pull of the train and had to hold on for all I was worth. Never tried that again! I don’t believe they proved it a myth!

By: lyn

lyn — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 20:10:15 +0000

OK. Mythbusters needs to do a follow up on this one. I know 10 & 12 year olds that weigh less than the test dummy “TED”. They use this busted mythbusters episode as an excuse to stand too close to the tracks. Every time I hear about a train vs. pedestrian in our area I fear it will be one of these kids. Adam & Jamie…Please do another episode with less weight…or at least go back and qualify what you’ve done.

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 09:45:37 +0000

I don’t know how Adam and Jamie could reproduce the exact set of circumstances, but an acquaintance of mine and his colleague were sucked into a passing high-speed train whilst bird watching in a railway cutting somewhere, I believe, in eastern Europe. My acquaintance was severely injured and spent many months in hospital. His colleague was killed.

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 09:39:19 +0000

What’s so special about a concrete conoe? In the late 1940′s and early 1950′s there were many concrete lighters moored on the River Medway in north Kent, UK.

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:44:57 +0000

I wonder if Jamie calculated the MAC before adjusting the CG

By: Bertie the Bunyip

Bertie the Bunyip — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 12:12:53 +0000

In fact, not only will a concrete glider, or for that matter, a glider made of just about any material that you can get to hold together, fly, it will fly equally as well as a glider of the exact same shape made out of a much lighter material.
The L/D (lift over drag) of any flying machine does not change with weight. in other words if you take a glider and load it up it will still go the same distance for a given altitude at the best glide speed for that weight.
The glider will descend more quickly, but it will go faster and just as far.
this isn’t to say a concrete glider is practical, but one made of the exact same shape as a lighter one will glide just as far.