The PRELIMINARY judging results for the Popular Mechanics contest are now IN!
I publish here the top 8 scores here (the 8 people that got a score of over 350k):
NOTE: Almost all the top scorers could not get airborne in the required 500 feet in X-Plane 8.40 Beta-6.
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NAME: |
SCORE (k) |
D-Q: |
Thomas Hayes got the top score! (It has the greatest speed times range... looks like a Rutan design!)
Barry Leager's plane looks the best, with Jason Chandler's coming in a close second.
But only a few people had a score of over 350k and still got off the ground in the required distance!
Now, why did so many people fail the take-off distance requirement? Well, it's all my fault! I announced the contest when an X-Plane beta was out where the control effectiveness was really too high, and there were some other little bugs and loopholes as well that people could exploit to get a really high score. I closed all the loopholes and made the flight controls and many other things more realistic, which makes X-Plane better, but these contest planes (which were already pushing the ragged edge of the envelope) just lost their edge to take off in 500 feet when I made the control effectiveness more realistic. This is MY fault for starting the contest in the middle of a beta-test period for X-Plane, but hey... Popular Mechanic's deadline was NOT negotiable!
Now, I am GLAD people found ways to "game the system"... this has been educational... AND BENEFICIAL FOR X-PLANE, because I have now closed these loopholes nicely once they were exposed! The drawback is that this D-Q's a lot of planes. This is unfair for sure, so I won't declare an absolute winner, but instead show what each plane can do.
ANYWAY, the entries were varied, interesting, fun, and beneficial for X-Plane, and I simply cannot declare an absolute winner because of the flight-model improvements made during the course of judging, but I think the scores and comments here do justice to the efforts put in. Thanks to everyone that contributed!
Now, on to the full suite of planes! I especially enjoyed some of the cultural trademarks.. a futuristic and anime-looking submission from Japan, a nice tight efficient-but-tough design from Germany, a racy-looking jet with the body of a sleek European glider from France... and a top efficiency score reminiscent of a Burt Rutan design.
Now, if you have X-Plane, you can fly some of the top entries!
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Grab Jason's planes here: Grab Peter's plane here: |
Grab Michaels's plane here: Grab Anthony's plane here: |
Grab Barry's plane here: Grab Tom's plane here: |
Michael Heinen's BRAIN PLANE has the best score that can still get airborne in 500 feet:
Anthony Booher... a single engine turns 2 fans... pretty cool!
Barry Leger's AWESOME-LOOKING interceptor:
What a cool jet!!! Jason Chandler's jet get a good score, but can't quite get airborne in 500 feet in the latest X-Plane betas:
Jason does DOUBLE-WORK! His prop is like a baby-brother to a Cirrus SR-22:
Pat Kelble's flying wing is so efficient... and reminds me of a graceful seagull.. and does not handle too bad either!
Peter Hager's Skyray 9 really looks like it can go the distance. This is a stable, safe-looking, nice-flying plane. Out of the group, this is one that really looks like it could go the distance in moving you around the Country:
Mr. Akaishi's LONG-SOAR is a long-distance design with a stealthy-looking shape... not bad at all! This reminds me of a Japinese-Anime futuristic personal transport!
Tom Hays, Junior at Oklahoma State, has the most efficient design... small wonder it is so reminiscent of Voyager!
Jerry Carlow takes the joined-wing approach, and it moves FAST!
Greg Bell decided that subtlety in paint was NOT called for:
Jesse Roberge has an efficient-looking design, with cool counter-rotating props... but the plane was a bit too tricky for us to fly, and counted on spinning the props up to redline AND THEN SUDDENLY PULLING IN PROP PITCH to use the energy stored in the props to jump into the air in less than 500 feet! FASCINATING! (...but not legal! Sorry Jesse!)
Alexey Kolesnik of Saint Petersburg, Russia, made this nice-flying and well-proportioned "Neva":
Showing that Swiss are not always constrained by careful order, Marc Stoecklin takes off in the ultra-safe "Jalousie":
WHAT IN SAM HILL IS GOING ON? Same Hale's "Flying Flea" hops across the desert:
E. Fourchault's design is red-hot... it flies like it looks... sporty and quick!
Dave Tornquist's design is around average in efficiency, and has a very nice overall shape and is very well-damped to fly... you could take this thing IFR no problem.
Heinz Dziurowitz took a conventional design that gives good all-around performance, and, unlike most of our other entrants, could probably ACTUALLY MAKE OUR WEIGHT TARGET.
Todd Parker makes the "Baby Bronco", which flies quite well!
Christopher Armstrong's plane has a nicely-balanced look, and could make a fun sport-plane:
Alex's airplane is very graceful to behold, and flies OK too! The fuselage on this plane may have the lowest drag-coefficient of the whole group if built for real!
