USS Enterprise Finally Flies

apetime writes "Found on Slashdot Japan: Model builder Kaname of Kumamoto, Japan has built a flying radio controlled model of the original Star Trek's USS Enterprise. (Scroll to the bottom of the page for a video. Or go here for an mpeg, and here for a WMV.) The ship measures from 75 cm, and only weighs 16 grams. It's a wobbly flight, but makes you think what else in Star Trek might work if it were tried."

A propeller, huh?

[Megane]

Not bad for a ship design that wasn't meant to operate in an atmosphere. The only reason it's aerodynamic is because that looked good on the TV screen.

I'm not sure what he used for control surfaces (in fact, I'm not sure it has any control at all, and maybe just flies forward), but I think it says in the description that it took him four days, and he used a motor from a CD-ROM.

It flies...but how?

[aurispector]

ok, he used the disk for lift, but you can't really tell where the control surfaces are. I'd guess from the in-flight pitch (and lack of an obvious elevator} that simple engine power adjustment controls altitude. The only other control seems to be a rudder- is he using the engine struts or the engines nacelles themselves?

Re:A propeller, huh?

[Roland Piquepaille]

I'm not sure what he used for control surfaces (in fact, I'm not sure it has any control at all, and maybe just flies forward)

It looks guided though, so I'm guessing the back edge of the disk bear the control surfaces.

I'm a bit disappointed that the propeller is at the front though. It would have been so cool at the back of the main "exhaust". Perhaps even inside it, but I can't really tell from the video if it would be large enough for a small prop.

Very cool though. Next task: make a model Bird of Prey that cloaks...

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:A propeller, huh?

[Brandon30X]

Actually I dont know if this has anything to do with it, but my dad has a friend who builds these wierd model airplanes out of round disks of foam. Maybe the its the same principal on this model due to the saucer section. They do fly quite well really.
-Brandon

Re:big, fat clue:

[Molina the Bofh]

Sorry, dude, but you're plaing wrong. Space is not vacuum. In fact, quantum physics tells us there even if you wanted, you could not create a perfect vacuum as virtual particles would pop up.

If you wanted to make a perfect vacuum, there would be other problems. First you would have to shield it from the enviroment. It's not that easy to shield, for example, neutrinos. Then the container itself will radiate photons, if it is not kept at a temperature of 0K.

The space contais lots of plasma. For someone used to a pressure of 1 atmosphere, it really seems to be nothing. But if you are cruisig at warp 5, the pressure of the space will be considerable.

Re:server meltdown?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not if they are running their own server. It's actually common in Japan to have direct fiber connections to people's houses. I know someone who recently complained his friend's got a new faster fiber line that allowed him to download a whole CD 2 minutes faster. Man he already downloads a whole cd worth in like 10 minutes.

Eject! Eject!

[steveha]

Now as any Trek fan knows, the impulse engines are on the saucer, and the warp engines are in the twin nacelles on stalks, attached to the engineering hull.

I read somewhere -- I think it was The Making of Star Trek -- that they always figured the saucer was held on to the engineering hull with explosive bolts, and in a dire enough emergency they could blow the bolts, fly on impulse, and even land the saucer (but probably not ever be able to take off again).

They never had occasion to use this, though.

I read somewhere else that the original ending of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (i.e., the Star Trek I movie) would have had lots of expensive special effects. The idea was that VGER, just before fading out, would re-create all the ships it had eaten and leave them behind. The problem was that it was leaving them near Earth, and it had shut down all Earth's defenses and forgot to turn them on again, and if you will recall it had eaten a few Klingon cruisers at the start of the movie. The Klingons look at a defenseless Earth and say "Whoa! Time to shoot some fish in a barrel!" and the Enterprise has to fight. Outnumbered and alone, Enterprise just barely wins... but they have to eject in the saucer.

If I could travel to parallel universes, I'd seek out one where that was actually made.

Geekily yours,

steveha