Kenya Talks

I admire this guy very much in his effort..


although the contraption looks semi-industrial and unable to fly...it is a major step.

From my knowledge of aviation:-

1. The power to mass ratio of a NZE Iron engine is a total disaster. He should have used a subaru all aluminium engine.

2. he should have avoided metal and used fabric for the skin.

First thing should be to reduce the weight of that plane by atleast 60% and the only way to do
that is to use more alluminium in body frame and engine, the wings he can use a canopy.

For the front wheel, to me the easiest thing would be to tweek the design and have two wheels in the front and one rear wheel

I hope he has not invested alot in what seem like an hobby; it shud be big lesson for gok, universities and research institution; if that guy can do something like that; why can't UON do it.

Sudan/Iran after sanctions imposed by USA basically manufactuare their cars, planes, name it.

Maybe we should be sanctioned.....so we can learn to crawl.

Gok bure kabisa...I think the best way to go is build more community colleges
with emphasis in Technology courses, Engineering science is good but we have no money
for R&D so go with the technologist to do more reverse engineering.

Btwn there are cheap kits for small plane on the internet just buy one then copy from there and get
jua kali guys to do the work

Let hope 15% to county and whole devolution will at least save us from unified gok; some well managed counties could come up with such ides

I like seeing people like him try something, though not new. the fella should have started building his craft by using scrub materials from trashed planes. His choice of material (here I mean weight/iron) will probably cost him his life when he attempts to fly it. I am more concerned about the central gravity of the craft. Instability will be the biggest problem. I hope the guy got some advice on fluid mechanice (the famous uplift/wing,) and most important the take off speed. Most aircraft take off at relatively low speeds, 250km/h. B4 take off the forces on the plane is well balanced. Aerodynamics over the surface of the moving object should be well balanced or can be controlled/balanced by the pilot

I would have liked to see the fella use more steel wire tendons rather than using solid material.

This guy must be advised that the shear weight to power ratio of his construction is a recipe for disaster.THE thing has 800 kilos and still under construction
put in another 300kg for other thing like fuel tanks, seats. tyres and windows.the final weight could be closer to 1.2 tons
now the amount of thrust required to generate lift for this kind of weight to overcome gravity needs an engine with more than 600 horsepower and iam sure his nze road car engine is most likely less than 100 horse power
This guy while i admire his ingenuity must be told he is playing with fire.
He should read this article here from the internet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-to-weight_ratio

What would really be cool is to run scholarship competitions. Give them lightweight material, solar panels and ask them to design a car or something. I personally don't see the point of face to face education. Kenya may as well adopt virtual classrooms, make students watch lectures from Stanford online.

Come up with whole syllabuses which stress creativity and brilliance as opposed to academic junk. Give them tools to search google, 50% of time on programming skills. I have to say my college experience was a waste of time and money. I'm still perplexed as to what the majority of academics do.

Great ideas. The 8-4-4 system was originally intended to address the local needs of education as opposed to the rote education of the previous system. The implementation however turned out to be just the same old system under a new name. Still I think a certain level of academic education is necessary though this probably ought to be something that each county decides based on local needs. I remember back in college we had appropriate technology courses for all students. I thought this was mostly too late too little since those ought to be introduced at much earlier levels.

veritas wrote:What would really be cool is to run scholarship competitions. Give them lightweight material, solar panels and ask them to design a car or something. I personally don't see the point of face to face education. Kenya may as well adopt virtual classrooms, make students watch lectures from Stanford online.

Come up with whole syllabuses which stress creativity and brilliance as opposed to academic junk. Give them tools to search google, 50% of time on programming skills. I have to say my college experience was a waste of time and money. I'm still perplexed as to what the majority of academics do.

Termi is that really you? Yes basic education is needed but by college they should be independent enough to do their own thing. I don't think it's fair how they make undergrads rote learn everything in science while grad students get to consult books. That might explain why the creative ones drop out and the persistent try hards make it to the next level. Rendering the academia with bigoted dunderheads.

Yes its me - someone had my handle for a while till I got it yesterday. I understand that feeling about the rote learning thing. I remember hating it with a passion. I generally was not big on studying for CATs and exams. It was too demanding on my limited attention span. Its funny I only developed an interest in the stuff I did way after finishing college. Crowding and funding academia with dunderheads is not good for discovery and learning. This is the age of the PHd assembly lines and not much of a fundamental nature has been discovered since the 40's.

veritas wrote:Termi is that really you? Yes basic education is needed but by college they should be independent enough to do their own thing. I don't think it's fair how they make undergrads rote learn everything in science while grad students get to consult books. That might explain why the creative ones drop out and the persistent try hards make it to the next level. Rendering the academia with bigoted dunderheads.

Hey Termi, how true! I think a lot of that brain now goes into the private sector like corporations. Sad.

well If i was the guy i would break this equation into three component
1. take off
2. Flying
3. Landing

On takeoff and Landing thats where the plane will be under maximum stress. In takeoff he has to address the issue of speed, for him to reach average speed
of 250km/h he will need alot of power from the engine while at the same time the plane need to stay oncourse at that speed now there the issue of allignment has to be adressed, the weight of the plane has to be evenly distributed on both side..........

True RV wrote:I like seeing people like him try something, though not new. the fella should have started building his craft by using scrub materials from trashed planes. His choice of material (here I mean weight/iron) will probably cost him his life when he attempts to fly it. I am more concerned about the central gravity of the craft. Instability will be the biggest problem. I hope the guy got some advice on fluid mechanice (the famous uplift/wing,) and most important the take off speed. Most aircraft take off at relatively low speeds, 250km/h. B4 take off the forces on the plane is well balanced. Aerodynamics over the surface of the moving object should be well balanced or can be controlled/balanced by the pilot

I would have liked to see the fella use more steel wire tendons rather than using solid material.

Ole Ole wrote:well If i was the guy i would break this equation into three component
1. take off
2. Flying
3. Landing

On takeoff and Landing thats where the plane will be under maximum stress. In takeoff he has to address the issue of speed, for him to reach average speed
of 250km/h he will need alot of power from the engine while at the same time the plane need to stay oncourse at that speed now there the issue of allignment has to be adressed, the weight of the plane has to be evenly distributed on both side..........

If I were the guy I would do two things:
-first ask the question, will that machine get to a speed of 100km/h?
-two if Yes, i would take a good life insurance then write a will for his children.

I think the Nz engine can get up to 100km/h but to have such a plane stay on course under such speed will be quite a task due to alignment issue.
I need to refresh on automatic control system about damping ( critical , under and over damped). Then i think he will need transmission to achive a speed of 100km/h and thats why i was suggesting going with two front wheels and eliminate installing a shaft and differntial to turn rear wheels...with front wheels just install axles to turn front wheel and drag the rear wheel.... On inssurance part you are right he need that ...i think one kenya guy in Nyeri, Gachamba attempted the same thing. he took off and elevated hundreds of feet but he had not addressed the landing part so the plane fell of trees breaking his limbs