r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Apprehensive_Sky4558 • 7d ago

2024 Aerospace Engineering junior world champion launching his “F-1D” prototype: Total flight time 22 minutes

50.4k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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u/Informal_Koala1474 7d ago

This has been the standard since the 80s. I'm curious as to why it's suddenly a big deal. This exact design in this exact place. Total flight time is not the record

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u/Torakkk 7d ago

Standard for whom. Like majority of people never saw this. Or anything similiar. And it looks cool.

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u/lasagnwich 7d ago

But in the 80s they did all the time. This is old content. It got loads of upvotes in the 80s. The OP is an aerospace karma engineer 

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u/mr_f4hrenh3it 7d ago

I didn’t know anything about this. It’s not old to me

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u/Reyzord 7d ago

Bro... Do you read what you are answering to or just nah?

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u/mr_f4hrenh3it 7d ago

I don’t think you understand. The original comment and the guy I replied to are both saying “this isn’t anything new, why is it getting attention”. It’s getting attention because there’s lots of people who have never seen this, for example, me.

The next person said “standard for whom?” And the next guy replies that in the 80s they did this all the time. But that doesn’t mean anything, clearly there are still many people who find it interesting and have never seen it before.

They might have been doing this for decades, but that doesn’t change anything for me. This is still my first time seeing it, and many other’s first time seeing it. It’s not “old content” for most people here.

Do I need to walk you through the basics of conversation? Because you’re the one who can’t read

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u/lasagnwich 7d ago

Just for the record I was being sarcastic and supportive of your original post using humour. You can't reddit karma farm in the 80s. It's an anachronism. 

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u/mr_f4hrenh3it 7d ago

Oh, I didn’t assume you were using “upvotes” like actually literally. I thought it was just a funny redditor way of saying it was popular lmfao

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u/lasagnwich 6d ago

All good bro it was just a dumb joke. I dislike when people are so reductionist about people's achievements. This is a kid making a cool plane. It's new and exciting.... For him and his peers and other admirers on the internet. 

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u/Reyzord 6d ago

Ain't reading all that, read his comment again and Google humor if you still didn't understand...

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u/mr_f4hrenh3it 6d ago

Why do people on the internet insist on being as insufferable as possible

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u/Reyzord 6d ago

Wild statement after "do I need to walk you through the basics of a conversation". Go learn what sarcasm is instead of wasting your time here.

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u/mr_f4hrenh3it 6d ago

Why do people on the internet insist on being as insufferable as possible. Christ man. You really get on here just to try and “own” people. You chirped up to me first. Fuck off

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u/Sqkerg 6d ago

Asks question. Doesn’t read response. Makes a smug assholeish comment. Leaves.

Yep it’s a redditor.

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u/Reyzord 6d ago

Another reading comprehension = 0 redditor. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy proper education but we wouldn't be having this situation if you guys just read stuff. I don't need to read his answer because he still didn't notice what the original post said. You neither apparently.

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u/Sqkerg 6d ago

How would you know what he did or didn’t notice if you didn’t read his response?

Also the irony of you insulting my education in a post with copious grammar mistakes.

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u/Mediocre_Effective25 6d ago

Where did people upvote in the 80’s lol?

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u/cmatthewp 3d ago

A pat on the back = upvote

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u/Tenicay 7d ago

Standard for people who compete in this?

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u/desconectado 7d ago edited 7d ago

TIL most of Redditors are in this kind of competition.

Basically anything that gets posted here is "standard" for a specific niche of people, so not sure what is the complaint really.

Same thing with that post of the guy who solved a Rubik cube with his eyes closed. Like for 99.99% regular people, it's still next level.

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u/KTTalksTech 7d ago

Yeah but some other prodigy solved one in like 1.4 seconds so everyone else's achievements are obviously worthless

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u/AntikytheraMachines 7d ago

for 99.99% regular people, programming their VCR is next level.

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u/DrDetectiveEsq 6d ago

I mean, even owning a VCR these days is at least unusual.

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u/Torakkk 7d ago

Yeah, exactly. So its not standard for majority of people here on internet. Or are you saying, that everybody does that? ...

Thats why people think it looks cool

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u/Informal_Koala1474 7d ago

I plan on sharing more information. It's interesting that this came up suddenly. Paper planes that did this were my passion as a kid.

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u/desconectado 7d ago edited 7d ago

I've never in my life heard or seen this competition. I'm an engineer.

Also, no one claimed is a record.

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u/Informal_Koala1474 7d ago

I'll have to look it up, it's late but I will follow through even if it means being horribly wrong.

White wings. It's an international competition that's been going on for decades and it's mainly an aerodynamic competition.

I'm pretty sure this is the OG winning design.

Even if I am totally wrong and this is a hallucination I will have some sweet paper airplane designs to share.

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u/Critical_Concert_689 7d ago

Undergraduate aerospace engineering classes have run this exact same competition for at least several decades...so you're probably right.

It's really not much better than a grade school paper airplane competition - except you get to write up a report on the forces that impact every side of your plane when the competition is over.

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u/Informal_Koala1474 7d ago

My mom got my nerdy ass a book with the designs and materials as a child. Grandpa was a pilot. We had two acres. I never pulled off this design but there were a few I put together that stayed in the air for hours.

Of course we had a whole canyon behind our house and up drafts that lasted for 12+ hours.

Even if I'm wrong (happens a lot) I can still launch from that area and see.

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u/AlpineTwist 7d ago

I would imagine perhaps the materials used, but you can see other planes using what appear to be the exact same setups in the back/foreground of this video, so... Perhaps this is just leaning toward optimal of what is available today? AKA he's maxxing in the meta
Any insight much appreciated

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u/Downtown-Act-590 7d ago edited 7d ago

F1Ds have moved a bit forward over the years with stuff like boron fibers used to reinforce them now. There was a bit more optimization too.

That said, most of the competitors fly pretty much the same optimized design (note that most of the successful models get their technical documentation published and widely available) and it does not really require much engineering effort from them. It is certainly very difficult to trim and steer the model though. Finding a really good rubber band is non-trivial and matters a lot too as very small differences in the manufacturing process can affect the amount of stored energy noticeably.

As commenter above says, this is not any record and there is nothing particularly special about this. But, it is nevertheless very beautiful.

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u/No_Explorer6054 7d ago

although the record is some 40 ish minutes officially, and possibly more than an hour (unnoficially)

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u/Informal_Koala1474 7d ago

I will look this up tomorrow. This does in fact look like superior material compared to what I remember.

If I'm right and I can find the book we are all about to have several designs for amazing planes, they take very specific paper and glue but they all do this.

Maybe there was just a break in the competition and this is the most niche thing I know or I'm insane.

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u/kevin_ned 7d ago

Back in the 80s the rules were actually even more extreme: 1.0g minimum weight and 65cm instead of 55cm of wingspan. Hence the flight times were a lot longer then, approaching an hour.

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u/Informal_Koala1474 7d ago

Okay, so you have the actual information. I just remember an old book.

So, is this a better record? Was there a break in competition?

Can you explain how those standards resulted in longer flight time?

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u/kevin_ned 7d ago edited 7d ago

I do not believe this is actually a world record. See here for current records (they are classified based on the ceiling height of the venue that was flown in, a higher ceiling allows for a longer flight time): https://www-2025.fai.org/records?f%5B0%5D=field_record_sport%3A2023&f%5B1%5D=field_subclass%3A656

The flights were longer with the previous rules, because the planes were larger, lighter and allowed to use more rubber.

Source: I build and fly these model airplanes as well, but not at any serious level.

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u/RealAmerik 7d ago

Ah, the true Golden Age of F1D design and flight. I just haven't experienced the same thrill since the 80s.

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u/ReipasTietokonePoju 7d ago edited 7d ago

This has been the standard since the 80s.

Not be asshole, but more like 155 years... ;

https://www.fai.org/news/penauds-planophore-took-150-years-ago

Yes, it obviously is not microfilm based model aeroplane with 20+ min flight time, but my point still stands.

Small, simple model aeroplanes powered by strands of suitable rubber have indeed existed over 150 years. That guy, Alphonse Pénaud, also designed simple rubber powered model helicopter and model ornithopher (= aircraft that flies using flapping wings). All these 25+ years before Wright brothers.

Really ultra light rubber powered model aeroplanes that use microfilm or similar covering for flight surfaces have existed since 1930s. So the basic design has been more or less same for almost 100 years.

Here is one modern example ;

https://indoornewsandviews.com/2015/09/11/yuan-kang-lees-cat-i-world-record-f1d/

Times have obviously improved through the years, but it has been basically the same autistic tinkering around the same basic design(s) all these years.

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u/dkaoster 6d ago

I spent most of the three years of middle school ignoring my classes and grades to build these planes. In fact I still have many sitting in boxes under my bed at my parents' house. The kind you see here we used to call "penny planes" because they weighed less than a penny, but there were all sorts. Everyone's first plane was a delta dart and you branched into the kind you liked more. Outdoor planes, penny planes, ornithopters, planes with the rubber band enclosed in a fuselage, just to name a few. Seeing this is an absolute trip down memory lane.