This page describes an active automatic stabilization control system designed to pitch stabilize passive-unstable flying wing planks.

Two plank design examples are presented employing typical high performance unstable airfoils, E374 & MH32. Both planks are stabilized without resorting to wing-twist or wing-sweep gimmicks and best of all - no horizontal stabilizer drag!

Inspiration

Inspiration for this project came from a “technical fiction” article written by John McMasters, “Flying the Altostratus I - Soaring to win in the 21st century” Soaring, published in February, 1981 where the article refers to a fictional “automatic stability augmentation system”. That was twenty years ago, and yes, I’ve worked on this project off and since then.

Getting Started

Use the navigation above to start learning about the Albatross, or use the links below to jump to a specific version.

The 64" Albatross I

The 94" Albatross II