Reddit reviews The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed
We found 3 Reddit comments about The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Reddit reviews The Deltoid Pumpkin SeedWe found 3 Reddit comments about The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
You can read about this project in the book, "The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed". It's quite interesting. Since this project, several lighter-than-air hybrids like this have flown with varying degrees of success. As far as I know, this was the first hybrid airship design.
https://www.amazon.com/Deltoid-Pumpkin-Seed-John-McPhee/dp/0374516359
Rehashing of an old idea see: Deltoid Pumpkinseed
There is also a pretty cool pool toy based on this principal as well: Pool Toy Video , I have one of these its pretty surreal to watch it "fly" underwater with such high horizontal speed driven completely by buoyancy.
Not sure how efficient this design will be with such small wings and it didn't look like the body was a lifting body shape but the pics could be misleading.
There's a book by John McPhee, The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed, about a group with big dreams for a craft like this in the seventies. I recommend it, though like a lot of McPhee's books, it left me with a strong "so, what the hell happened to this idea?" feeling at the end.
Guess this is part of the answer.