I love the show.
I watched Jamie and Adam build concrete gliders on the show a the other day. Their efforts, while showing some promise, were not dazzling. It occurs to me that lift depends on the velocity of the air moving over the wing. Is it possible that a heavy glider dropped from a greater hieght would behave more like a lifting body? Also, could a motorized glider made from concrete perform well? And again, there are other types of light weight concretes; could you get an advantage in decreased weight that would be enough to allow your previous efforts to fly successfully?
Thanks,
Bill Ridings

concrete gliders??? i mean come on even a motorized one will not work it is just more weight. concrete is just to heavy for it to fly. there is no possible way to get a concrete glider to fly.

[quote]concrete gliders??? i mean come on even a motorized one will not work it is just more weight. concrete is just to heavy for it to fly. there is no possible way to get a concrete glider to fly.[/quote]

You apparently didn't watch the show. Please watch it before you comment more. It will help you look like less of an idiot.

I'm no expert at the theory of flight, but in the model that Jamie built, he sacrificed wing shape to reduce weight. I believe he also sacrificed the speed necessary to create the lift when he just threw his model off the balcony. I found it interesting that at the last moment he added more weight in a futile attemp to balance his plane
As far as cement being too heavy, weight can be overcome by thrust, just lookat how heavy the space shuttle is when it lifts off.
I would be interested to see a better wing design.

Given enough power you can make anything fly. The space shuttle is a great example of that.

Given enough technical skill and engineering it is possible while using modern formulas to make something more efficient than either model used on the show. But how much money does it take to improve on something that was already proven? And anyone knows there are plenty of better types of materials to build airplanes out of so why go any further than has been done?

Jamie and Adam ended the show believing that concrete gliders are possible. I think they even agreed that their own designs left plenty of room for improvement. But it's still impracticle. Once it's agreed that it's possible but impracticle, there's really no reason to continue.

It was a great episode but I think they made a serious mistake when they calculated the gliding ratio. The ratio increases with the initial speed where they start their calculations. Adams plane had a much higher speed at the start of the measured distance and therefore flew further. If you launch two identical gliders at the same altitude but with different speed, the glider with the highest speed will get the furthest distance and get the highest gliding ratio, even though the planes have identical specifications. This is why Adam won the competition even though his plane weighed more and generated less lifting power.

I agree that this myth needs to be revisited. I've been building model airplanes for 30+ years and I'll bet I could make an concrete model glider fly. The problem that I saw with this episode is that Jamie and Adam were newbies at building model airplanes so they made some pretty goofy mistakes and it didn't help that they only had 1 shot at making their airplane fly.

For example, Jamie's plane could have flown better but his plane was out of adjustment so his plane did what we call a "Tuck Under". His airplane actually flew......right straight into the ground. lol If he had his decalange and his center of gravity adjusted right, he could have, would have, should have beat Adam's airplane.

hi there

i havnt had the chance to see the show with the concrete glider yet.
but here in the uk in an aircraft museum they have a second world war german glider bomb made of concrete.the reason behind it is to make it heavier for more inpact.
stuggiebear

Here's why this mith should be revisited.
Adam's glider was attached to a zipline, giving it even momentum and setting it on a properly angled descent. However, that was not the myth. If you attach a rock to a zipline and let it go, it will continue its forward movement until it is stopped by the ground, the same as the glider. Adam's plane did not glide... it just fell with minor lift and continued forward with the momentum it had on the zipline. If jamie's plane had been on a zipline, chances are it would have flown further, straighter, and retained lift linger than adam's behemoth.

Redo it. My family is full of pilots and we were yelling at the TV screen for the duration of the test because it was so biased toward's adam's lift-less glider.