Samson Newsletter, October 2009
We will be putting out a press release shortly, but wanted to keep you up on advancements. As mentioned previously, we had received interim funding and have been progressing at a rapid pace through the very exciting time of finalizing the design of the Switchblade. One of our top targets was the reduction of stall speed. While many options were reviewed, increasing the size of the main wing was deemed the most feasible, and we have widened the chord and found a new hinge point that gave us a bit more wing span.
When all things were considered in this change, it became apparent that we were at a crossroads concerning feasibility on the use of a canard. A canard can be useful when you want to increase the lift of all wings, as seen in the very successful Piaggio Avanti. A canard has several plus points, and several minus points. The chief minus point is that anything ahead of the cg acts to destabilize an aircraft. That includes propeller forces, front wheels, canards and other forward features. DAR Corp ran several studies to determine the relative
merits in stability and performance with and without
the canard. At the end of the day, it became obvious that the canard
was truly an option rather than a necessity with the larger wing. We
chose not to include it, although we had grown used to its looks.
The chief reasons we removed the canard included less build time,
simplicity of design and systems, reducing the potential for wing
damage while on the ground, and lower cost. For this we gave up the
softer stall characteristics of a canard aircraft.
The rear ducted fan area is being re-designed to enlarge the inlets and reduce the effects of duct drag. The new design is looking even more sculpted than before, so we hope you are fine on people ogling you as you drive by. We don’t think a Lamborghini will give more double takes than the Switchblade will.
The stall speed has been reduced from 61 mph to 57 mph, and it is possible that it could be slowed even more. We have found another engine that we feel could be suitable and the horsepower is augmented by a supercharger, so power is maintained at altitude. Attached is a power/airspeed graph which shows the relative sea level airspeeds according to the power settings, up to the maximum of 260 hp for this engine. For those who want to burn more fuel and go faster, 80% cruise will get you over the 200 mph mark. For those wanting a more economical engine, the rotary engine based upon the Freedom engine has been funded and is entering production. This promises to be a very simple, lightweight solution for the certified aircraft engine market. We are looking forward to receiving beta test engines in the summer of 2010.
We attended the EAA Young Eagles event thanking Harrison Ford for
his work, and introducing Jeff and Sulley as Ford’s replacements. It
was quite an event, and we met with the three of them individually
to start the foundation of our future support of the Young Eagles. A
photo of Harrison Ford with Sam and Martha Bousfield, of Samson
Motors, is included in this newsletter.
In case you missed it, there was a short but enthusiastic article in the November issue of Flying magazine. We were gratified that they felt it was newsworthy for their readers, as we are still some time before first flight. We have more big news, but we are still dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, so we will save it for next time. Coming soon will be wind tunnel testing (after we finish with the ducted fan), and further adventures in simplifying construction techniques and materials to make the kit an easy one to complete. Having the FAA finish their review of the 51% rule gives us a green light for putting together the most complete kit possible under the rules. We hope you will be one of our lucky builders!
Safe Flying!
We will be putting out a press release shortly, but wanted to keep you up on advancements. As mentioned previously, we had received interim funding and have been progressing at a rapid pace through the very exciting time of finalizing the design of the Switchblade. One of our top targets was the reduction of stall speed. While many options were reviewed, increasing the size of the main wing was deemed the most feasible, and we have widened the chord and found a new hinge point that gave us a bit more wing span.
When all things were considered in this change, it became apparent that we were at a crossroads concerning feasibility on the use of a canard. A canard can be useful when you want to increase the lift of all wings, as seen in the very successful Piaggio Avanti. A canard has several plus points, and several minus points. The chief minus point is that anything ahead of the cg acts to destabilize an aircraft. That includes propeller forces, front wheels, canards and other forward features. DAR Corp ran several studies to determine the relative
merits in stability and performance with and without
the canard. At the end of the day, it became obvious that the canard
was truly an option rather than a necessity with the larger wing. We
chose not to include it, although we had grown used to its looks.
The chief reasons we removed the canard included less build time,
simplicity of design and systems, reducing the potential for wing
damage while on the ground, and lower cost. For this we gave up the
softer stall characteristics of a canard aircraft.The rear ducted fan area is being re-designed to enlarge the inlets and reduce the effects of duct drag. The new design is looking even more sculpted than before, so we hope you are fine on people ogling you as you drive by. We don’t think a Lamborghini will give more double takes than the Switchblade will.
The stall speed has been reduced from 61 mph to 57 mph, and it is possible that it could be slowed even more. We have found another engine that we feel could be suitable and the horsepower is augmented by a supercharger, so power is maintained at altitude. Attached is a power/airspeed graph which shows the relative sea level airspeeds according to the power settings, up to the maximum of 260 hp for this engine. For those who want to burn more fuel and go faster, 80% cruise will get you over the 200 mph mark. For those wanting a more economical engine, the rotary engine based upon the Freedom engine has been funded and is entering production. This promises to be a very simple, lightweight solution for the certified aircraft engine market. We are looking forward to receiving beta test engines in the summer of 2010.
We attended the EAA Young Eagles event thanking Harrison Ford for
his work, and introducing Jeff and Sulley as Ford’s replacements. It
was quite an event, and we met with the three of them individually
to start the foundation of our future support of the Young Eagles. A
photo of Harrison Ford with Sam and Martha Bousfield, of Samson
Motors, is included in this newsletter.In case you missed it, there was a short but enthusiastic article in the November issue of Flying magazine. We were gratified that they felt it was newsworthy for their readers, as we are still some time before first flight. We have more big news, but we are still dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, so we will save it for next time. Coming soon will be wind tunnel testing (after we finish with the ducted fan), and further adventures in simplifying construction techniques and materials to make the kit an easy one to complete. Having the FAA finish their review of the 51% rule gives us a green light for putting together the most complete kit possible under the rules. We hope you will be one of our lucky builders!
Safe Flying!
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