Twin boom flat annular wing push prop drone.

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HippoDan@reddit

There have been RC models in this layout for years, I've built one myself nearly 20 years ago. It's called a Geobat.

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billyvray@reddit

My dad and I worked with the guy (inventor?) Jack Jones that came up with the original Geobat in the 90s. Fun stuff .

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McLuhanSaidItFirst@reddit

just curious, congrats on your work, what does the Geobat give you that a Zagi doesn't ?

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I think the layout has 2 advantages.1) circle wing has good lift at low speed and can go fast. 2) the opening in the back section makes it easier to balance and airflow over the “tail feathers” is better during low speed.
Vs a Zagi I couldn’t say, but would guess low speed performance could better- I’ve seen these just about hover down to landing.

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eldavinchi@reddit

Doesn't your father have the plans for the big Geobat? I want to make

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billyvray@reddit

Sorry, no, he’s long passed on. I had plans at one time but they’re gone too.

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eldavinchi@reddit

I'm sorry about that; the old school of aeromodeling and experimental aerodynamics is already fading. One question: Did you and your father have any opinions about the creator's idea of creating a full-scale version for humans? Was it really feasible? I saw that the project never raised enough, and then I saw a page dedicated to saying the owner was a scammer and because of him, the project never succeeded.

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billyvray@reddit

Jack (the designer) only told me that he got kinda screwed on the deal. He’s a good guy and would not disparage them any further. He was made a lot of promises and they were just dreams.
The unique layout made it particularly difficult to adapt to humans. It would have been a hard craft to build. The model could have been drawn much more simply in my opinion also, though it was built “hell for stout” as Pop would say.

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eldavinchi@reddit

I think the complaint was more against the owner of Aerobat or something like that; it was just a random page anyway. I wanted to build a full-size one. I see the stable model in many ways, but if they wanted to make it a reality, I imagine it would be possible. What do you think would be the advantages of this one optimized for humans?

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McLuhanSaidItFirst@reddit

thanks

Chop off the connected tail and Geobat looks A LOT like a BWB (blended wing body)

the tail and the leading edge being semicircular seems to me to be just a gimmick, I think this needs a lot more research

Although the higher max cL of a disk planform must have something to do with the Geobat performance

It's so intriguing that putting a hole in the disk has this effect

A disk plan has a very very high max cL but it appears at a ridiculously high AoA, so to me what that means is a disk is good at a parachute descent, because that's what you get when descending in a flat attitude: a very steep glideslope

So pull power and keep the nose down

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eldavinchi@reddit

Annular wing don't bear much resemblance to BWBs. BWBs try to take advantage of what would be the advantages of flying wings, but on a large scale for passengers.

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Festello@reddit

Definitely caused a few dozen ufo sightings. Fly during twilight hours for the greatest effect.

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Difficult_Front_3987@reddit (OP)

I’ve built a foam-board one which had bright Icy blue LED lights running around its rim, (stopping before the rear controll surfaces of course), it looked absolutely out of this world.

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McLuhanSaidItFirst@reddit

just curious, congrats on your work, what does the Geobat give you that a Zagi doesn't ?

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McLuhanSaidItFirst@reddit

just curious, congrats on your work, what does the Geobat give you that a Zagi doesn't ?

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getting_serious@reddit

Can't have wingtip losses when the wing is infinite taps head

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Difficult_Front_3987@reddit (OP)

Exactly what makes the Geobat so damn cool (aside from its stylish looks). I’ll tell you what though, I’ve built 8 different designs of this planeform, and it is damn near impossible to get the CG far enough forward.

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McLuhanSaidItFirst@reddit

just curious, congrats on your work, what does the Geobat give you that a Zagi doesn't ?

So you mount the motor and the battery in a pylon out the front ?

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LPGeoteacher@reddit

Naboo called to get its Cruzer back.

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kef34@reddit

I mean, yeah, 3 out these 4 pixels definitely look weird.

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BlacksmithNZ@reddit

I tried searching for better res versions as I vaguely recall another circular wing light aircraft, but 'annular wing' comes up with a million other weird wings

Going down the rabbit hole.. look at this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee-Richards_annular_monoplane

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Zygodac@reddit

Was it possibly the [Vought_V-173, AKA Flying Pancake] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_V-173)

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AdCompetitive9542@reddit

No The Vought's had a different planoform,. and the propeller driven one had the props on booms at the end of the wing

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BlacksmithNZ@reddit

I know the Vought and similar 'UFO' style ones but this was quite conventional light aircraft; piston engine, tractor propeller, fuselage, tail planes etc, just that the wing was circular plan form when viewed from above/ below, with aerofoil cross section

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Difficult_Front_3987@reddit (OP)

Yeah… sorry man, I only had the compressed version of this guy. If you wanna see better resolution of this same planeform, Google “Geobat”, you’ll see a bunch more just like this guy.

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Cthell@reddit

The first aircraft to be powered by JPEG compression artefacts

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ClearAirTurbulence3D@reddit

It looks like a flying saucer version of the American Gyro AG-4 Crusader

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Difficult_Front_3987@reddit (OP)

Totally see it, that’s awesome!

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mo_garbage@reddit

Dude what - I had an idea for a near identical airplane almost a year ago, made the CAD design and 3D printed some test versions and everything, but I called it The Luna Ray. I thought no one had ever tried a design like it and I might be on to something, but I guess I'm still late to the party. Dang

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Difficult_Front_3987@reddit (OP)

No way man, I actually discovered the Geobat planeform in almost exactly the same way! Stumbled on it while researching characteristics of flat annular wings after coming up with my own design which turned out to be near identical to this preexisting one. I’d love to see what you came up with of your own accord! if you wouldn’t mind sharing a link to a cad model or something, I’d greatly appreciate that.

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Phalanx000@reddit

looking like an AI image

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RepresentativeCut486@reddit

If it's real then I want to build it

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Difficult_Front_3987@reddit (OP)

It’s real, and making a foam board version is actually very easy. Google “Geobat foamie plans”

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btdallmann@reddit

Is it based out of Roswell?

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BlacksmithNZ@reddit

Somebody else mentioned the Geobat RC aircraft, and that is it:

https://www.google.com/search?q=geobat+saucer+aircraft

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