The pointy 2d flying heart is an elaboration of the 3-d version yet to be perfected. But a simplification it is not since we decided to up the “heartiness” of it by making the prop hole heart shaped as well. The plane was built for the Escape to New York festival in the Hamptons this summer (2011) on the Shinnecock reservation.
Some photos:
The template
It has about the same square inches as a regulation Towel, 500 or so, but I was really worried about center of gravity issues and the performance of the wing with such a big cut out.
The heart parts cut out of foam and covered in purple metallic covering
I had balloon fabric in purple that I thought would look good so used 3m77 to attach to foam before cutting. These are the initial cutouts for the wing and stabilizer. I usually do a prototyping pass without decoration for “radical” models but I was pretty sure this would fly and was low on time.
Will it balance or not? CG test with major components attached with tape.
The CG issues proved manageable. A bunch of logistic details were handled on the fly–NASA this is not. Like how to get the tail to not be a huge issue on landing. Also, reinforcements for a pretty floppy airframe.
It all worked out–here is the first flight:
Post flight interview, turns out I was not so confident that it would fly after all. It is weird but my hands still shake to this day out of nervousness on test flights for radical designs. Usually the second flight is when I get the shakiest. First flight is all business, but the confirmation flight is a different matter. Interesting experience.
