I tried to email you, but no reply. I want to make a magnetic launch like your airplane launcher, but I want to use it for my model roller coasters. wonders if you could send me the reserch sources or any info or tips.
I believe this type of engine is called a ”head-valve” engine. It’s so interesting how incredibly simple it is and that it’s used in co2 plane and airhogs planes engines! (basically engines that have the piston hit the valve)
@Tom, good work on the engine design and printing. As for the Formlabs printer, I recommend you print the cylinder barrel slightly under by 0.1mm then use a sized rheem to get it to the correct size but remember to use rotate the rheem backward otherwise, you'll crack the resin print. (have made many smooth formlabs printed cylinders now)
This series is an internet treasure. I can't wait to see where it ends up. Please never stop having ridiculous ideas about using compressed air for propulsion.
@@Doribi117 something can be ridiculous and awesome at the same time =p This wasn't even his idea, it was someone else's..he is just improving on it =p
maybe an Idea? firstly you could increase the piston total movement (increasing chamber/cylinder length), when piston is going down and reach in middle of chamber the piston also reach in the chamber roles, releasing the air pressure and after that this roles will close (maybe using more rubber valves) and the piston will continue its movement going down, at this moment it will create a vacuum in the chamber when piston reach on bottom of cylinder helping the piston up again with vacuum in the chamber, this could create more power?
First rule of thumb. If you’re going to launch your model airplane into a field with only one branch, the plane will always gravitate to that branch. It’s a law.
If you are going to let an object gain motion and preferably travel through air with no real influence from the ground, any object that isn't grass will gravitationally attract it
failing to find an appropriate branch, all flying models shall gravitate directly for the head of the most vulnerable or least observant spectator... at least mine only target myself :)
when i got my first drone, i also got my first demonstration of its return home feature… riiiiight as it passed under a tree. climbing that tree to shake the branch so my dad could catch it was a ton of fun, though.
I am a British gen x engineer. I have to say you are great. Your content is great generally. Your delivery, editing, choice of project... every detail... but mostly it's your infectious tenacity and dilligence. Thank you for being a highlight in my youtube playlist. More power to your elbow!
An aircraft motor factory and aviation research center combined into one person. Impressive dedication and ingenuity. Wish you the best Tom, never stop!
if he can simplify his design and make a "toy-plane-air-engine" made out of items you can find at home like a 2liter pepsi bottle he could sell those "kits"
There is a lot to learn from this video. I especially liked the silicone moulding process and the R&D of the seal. Very rewarding to see it work better and better with each iteration.
Crazy to think how little thrust you’d get by simply letting the air shoot out of the bottle through a jet nozzle, but through the miracle of science, it’ll make a ton of thrust for minutes on end. Very amazing! I’m impressed.
I often think about this as it relates to modern ICEs. You can push a few thousand pounds more than a hundred miles with just a few gallons of gas. That's crazy.
Dude... I love the way you break things down, show your process, analyze your "failures" (more like steps along the path forward,) and diagram things along the way. It's truly inspiring stuff.
3d printing is good for a lot of things, but a low friction piston cylinder is not one of them. You should design a piston and housing that fits a standard diameter glass or acrylic tube for the cylinder.
I've bought some acrylic tubes for this exact reason! I couldn't find any 12mm inside diameter tubes (diameter of my current seal design), so I ran out of time to re-design and mold new seals. But I will definitely experiment with the acrylic tubes for the 'aircraft worthy' engine!
@@TomStantonEngineeringmaybe something similar to the glass tube/graphite pistons from a company called Airpot. I got a free sample years ago to try and make a Sterling (Stirling?) engine and the fit and low friction is outstanding.
@@TomStantonEngineering Better option is to use a conical cylinder. and MACHINING. 3d printing is FAR AWAY from precision. as you stated there are air engines already in the market. why try to re invent the wheel since 3d printing will never have enough precision for something like this.
@@vihreelinja4743 On the one hand, note that even with his techniques, he's still improved over the engine on the market multiple times. On the other, imagine combining his techniques with their production quality...
Absolutely LOVING these research and development episodes.. I absolutely love that you got hold of the original designs from decades ago, and then smashed the record of it using lessons from their own design.. It does make me wonder if the seal inside the 25 year old box has over-hardened over all that time so is not working as well as it did new.
I flew the original airhog in a field in Pennsylvania USA. The kids I wowed are now adults. I kept the carcass of that plane to showcase energy storage and transfer in my science classes. You really have done us a huge service dissecting and improving what you’ve uncovered! Thank you so much for your persistence!
I'm 26 now, I got one of them when I was about 8-10 yrs old. I remember it being one of the coolest toys every. I looked them up, apparently they are vintage and are going for over $100
It's already been 4 years I made a 4 cylinder remix of your engine, and it's still an enjoyment to see you improving your design and sharing it. Thank you very much for everything.
Try making a compressed air version of a double or triple expansion steam engine. Those used pistons of increasing size and flowed the steam exhaust from one cylinder to the next to capture more of the power of the expanding steam.
how did you solve the problem created by the single sided crankshaft? did you use a traditional big end on the con rod or did you make a radial engine?
@@greggv8 there might not be sufficient pressure to allow for multiple cylinders, steam engines used these kinds of cylinders due to the fact that they had very high pressure and stroke lenghts that would allow for a limited amount of pressure difference between TDC and BDC.
I'd love to tell you the story of designing the airhogs, the engine and how long it took to perfect it. That seal was a breakthru to achieve consistency in production. The spring was equally important. keep up the good work.
I bet they wouldn't believe a (dare I say) hobbyist at home 3D printing his own computer designs and reviewing the slow motion footage to improve it. Technology ❤ no disrespect Tom you and your content is very professional but I feel you aim for the hobbyist vibe!
@@danolver913judging by the fact this was first released in the mid 90's they probably didn't use any computer to design this and just did hand drawn designs and calculations like almost everything back then.
I genuinely treasure these videos and hearing that old airhogs sound again is great. I'm amazed at your improvements over this design and love seeing how your designs have actually been original! Please don't stop. I want to see how far this can go!
YYEEEEESSSSSS this is one of my favourite series on youtube! I love to see the development of a technology unfold in front of my eyes! Keep it up! 👀 With the performance of the older engines I felt like a model that more or less flies in a straight line is all that could ever be achieved, but this new design’s insane performance gives me hopes of one day seeing you put RC controls on it and being able to actually maneuver it! And there’s still the possibility of putting more bottles for longer runtime, seeing if it can withstand more than 60 psi... eheheh I drool at the possibilities.
I found myself giggling with the efficiency numbers of the new engines because I couldn’t believe how efficient you have made these. Congratulations and well done. Looking forward to the next video.
Wow i was not expecting the first jump in performance and then the second jump also blew me away. Love the use of resin printing as well, amazing what a $200 machine can produce these days.
I remember watching your initial air engine designs which largely influenced my choice to major in mechanical engineering. 5 years later and stuff like this still excites and inspires me, can't thank you enough.
I've spent most of my life wanting to understand the Air Hogs air piston motor. It pops into my mind from time to time for the last 30 years. Amazing work! Seeing yours work puts my mind at rest. Thank you.
Bloody brilliant work. Also a great example of the iterative process. A lot of engineers who come out of projects, struggle with iteration. I think this is a great example of how reflection and research get you closer and closer to the optimal solution. The key is not allowing previous failures to discourage further iterations.
Wtf, thats like the thing that i wanted to see most for months. Thank you so much! This is my favorite content of which there isnt much. And you is how i found out what my favorite content is - optimisation, upgrading of designs + pneumatic and weird engines
I'm not a massive gearhead or anything but I do so look forward to a Tom Stanton video dropping. It's such a perfect formula of sound chap breaks down relatively complex principles in a fun and absorbable way. And no TH-camy bells and whistles (obtrusive adds, shoutiness, OMG faces, overwrought camera work etc) Legend!
I love how you were able to 5x the efficiency with the new design by just being clever and not by over engineering it. I cant wait to see it fly. Keep up the great videos!
This makes me miss my old Air Hogs plane, they were so much fun! Great detailed breakdown, same tactics I use while creating medical equipment. Keep up the great work!
I love your channel. You opened up a brand new toy from the 90s, took high speed photography of it's inner workings in operation, disassembled it, cast it's parts, published the findings of using it's methodology... I love how you're bringing out the forgotten engineering work people did and making what theoretically anyone could do... available for us all.
I have been watching your videos for quite some time, and it's amazing to see your persistency and how far you've gone, great job!! Excited to see a plane working with it!
Very cool build! In addition to all the obviously fascinating engineering, I love how you label your graphs with outlined pictures of the motors instead of just text. It's a small detail (that I may steal) which really helps to make the data clear and follow-able.
Amazing! I think you should make a version where the piston is much smaller, increasing the run time significantly. Then, you can cut the engine weight down by making the walls thinner and using ribs and whatnot. Once you have an engine that has a long run time and is very light, you can make a plane out of light materials such as balsa wood and mylar. Then tune the plane and try and get it to fly for 2 minutes!
Having been a follower of the air engine saga from the beginning, it's pretty cool to see the massive improvement that happened after going back to the source. The real lessons were inside -us- airhogs all along.
Tom has gone full circle, re-inventing what had be forgotten, or unknown to him. This not unlike the real world, where NASA is reinventing technologies to land humans on the Moon again after more than 50 years.
I don’t ever look for his videos but when they pop up I’m so captivated by what he’s doing and how that I never can skip them. I live watching and learning.
I just simply love the step by step iterations you did to make the compressed air engine even better and also resorting to reverse engineer the original air hogs motor to get the highest efficiency. The thought process and the steps that goes into making this compressed air motor is extremely interesting to watch! Can't wait for the motor to fly! Great work Tom!
You do a fantastic job creating these animations. Great video Tom!. Congratulations on your engineering successes. Those last graphs entered beast mode .
Back in the 80's, in the US, the "Air Jammer" compressed air powered car was my favorite toy, it utilized a cam lobe to activate the intake valve (a ball) , attaching a thick washer to the output gear, resulted in slightly slower speeds, but much longer run time. Cool vid.
The reason your original 40 shore seals were so hard to remove from the mould is that it’s a polyurethane resin being poured into a polyurethane resin mould so the materials actually want to bond to each other! You need to use a release agent on the mould to create a barrier between the materials or instead of using 40 shore PU material use a 40 shore silicone like RTV 240 or T4
Pretty cool. About 40 years ago, my brother and I had some toys called the Air Jammer Road Rammer made by a company called Tomy. You would use the included pump to pressurize a tank on the car, and then give it a push and off it went. We spent hours upon hours jumping it down the kitchen step or who knows what else. Thanks for the cool content (and the memory).
The amount of pure dopamine I receive from watching you make the engine more efficient and present it in such an understandable way is shocking but well done Tom excellent progress on the engine and really clever upgrades I absolutely love it
I had one of the early air hog planes similar to the one in the video. I think your video, research & development are really superb, I haven’t seen 3D printing in a “hobby” sense used to such exacting measures. God bless, Bill.
It’s so easy to get caught up in one half of the R&D process that you completely forget about and neglect the other. This video is a good reminder of the strides you can make when you remember to stop and do a little more research, or a couple more iterations. On a different note, I’m very interested in seeing how much further you can improve the engine! The Air Hogs design is likely optimized for mass production rather than performance, so there’s probably many strides you can make on that front. It’d be interesting to see the effect of adjusting bore&stroke measurements, but that’d be a lot of printing… I’m sure there’s probably some equation for that somewhere 😊
Hi Tom, you might consider glancing at the piston heads used in airsoft cylinders. They use pressure to expand standard-sized nitrile o-rings outward which delivers very good sealing and high speed/cycle wear life. The design tolerances around the o-ring would need altering because existing designs only seal while the piston slides in the forward (for your engines, upward) direction. Not sure it's applicable for your engine but it does its job very well.
Multiple cylinders will multiply the: A: Thrust (is good) B: Friction (is bad) C: Other Losses (is bad) E: Air consumption (is bad depending on point A) F: Coolness (is COOL!) Feel free to comment on point D!
It will also go some way to eliminate the requirement for the flywheel to create the cylinder compression, since the other cylinder can now provide that. Unfortunately a V2 would probably be a bit unreliable (especially on a plane) because the ball valve is sealed by gravity as well as pressure - although maybe the effect of gravity isn't very much given the high pressure air pushing the ball out? Either way, I'd vote for an inline 2 engine.
@@asdaneedsfunds Wouldn't you still want a flywheel? Stores energy for the compression stroke, helps keep the engine running smoother. I wouldn't eliminate the flywheel, I would just adjust the weight of it until you get peak efficiency.
@@TrollingAround Double expansion makes it worth it. Steam engines used this technique, works on air engines too. Basically you just run a second engine optimized for lower pressure and feed it off the exhaust of the first engine. You're not consuming additional air, friction is still fairly minimal, and you extract way more power because your two cylinders are tuned to run at the pressures they'll normally see. Only real downside is complexity.
Like some other people in the comments already said, a dashpot (precision ground glass cylinder with a matched graphite piston) should improve your performance even more. It's a very common part in low-delta-T Stirling engines and should be reasonably available.
Currently taking calc for the first time and pursuing a mech E degree, and I have to say, your the first person who has given me a real-world example of integrals with your impulse calculations. Cheers mate!
For achieving an air tight piston that moves freely when not under pressure you might consider the type used in Airsoft gun gearboxes. It's a piston with vent holes on the pressure face which flow into the o-ring groove behind the o-ring and push it out onto the cylinder wall creating an excellent seal. When not under compression the o-ring should barely touch the cylinder wall, and if you push it slowly into the cylinder it won't seal, but push it in fast, or introduce high pressure to the chamber and the o-ring spreads and seals.
Hey Tom, is it possible for you to make a kit for the air engine? I don’t have a 3d printer and my parents won’t let me get one so is it ok for you to make these and then sell them? Thanks
Energy cannot be created out of nowhere. The wasted exhaust air is at a lower pressure than the initial air coming into the engine. You could harness this by passing it into a second air engine, however it would be much less powerful than the initial engine since it's running on a lower air pressure.
can’t have a 100% conversion, if you catch and reuse air that will add force in the opposite direction the plane is going, without speed a plane cannot fly unfortunately
as always, a pleasure. reminds me of my time at university, figuring out problems in room full of nerds for nights on end. nothing of it related to our actual studies, just what we enjoyed building and coding. i know some of you will relate.
I can't tell you how pleased I am with my TH-cam algorithm today. So glad I "stumbled" on to your video today. Shared with friends I knew would appreciate it just as much. Cheers!
I am glad you have returned to this project as I enjoyed your previous attempts. So much looking forward to seeing the model you will make for this project. 👍
You essentially Made a U-Cup seal. I was going to say, "you should look at the seals on bicycle suspension." A lot of bicycle suspension components rely on U-cup seals or quad rings. You might find some inspiration here.
when I was little I tried making slotcar tires by moulding household silicone in a mould made of wax... the result worked but it was messy with air bubbles. I've never seen the technique you've shown, interesting... I thought I needed a bell jar to pull this off. Your results are awesome.
Man I had so much fun with the skyshark as a kid. Played with it till the wings broke off, bought more, broke those, then taped the body to every kind of vehicle I could think of to make propeller powered stuff. Easily one of the best 90s toys.
I love the clear working design because the seal turning inside out gives a super clear impression of how strong the pressure is. Like when an anime villain gets punched in the face and gets their face flattened
First video I have seen from you. Wow, honestly intriguing beyond words. Was not expecting to be so interested in your work when I randomly stumbled across it.
When I learn something, or hear / see an explanation that makes me learn something, or clarifies a concept I already had a minimal understanding of, I always give a like.
I have a Air Hog power pod that I built a airframe for. I also added a folding prop for a E-power motor. It fly's very well. I could have made it much lighter by using built up construction for the wing and tail, but it is robust enough to take some lumps. I did use contest grade balsa so it is not too heavy Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing more.
Get an exclusive Surfshark deal! Enter promo code STANTON for an extra 3 months free at surfshark.deals/stanton
I tried to email you, but no reply. I want to make a magnetic launch like your airplane launcher, but I want to use it for my model roller coasters. wonders if you could send me the reserch sources or any info or tips.
I believe this type of engine is called a ”head-valve” engine. It’s so interesting how incredibly simple it is and that it’s used in co2 plane and airhogs planes engines!
(basically engines that have the piston hit the valve)
@Tom, good work on the engine design and printing. As for the Formlabs printer, I recommend you print the cylinder barrel slightly under by 0.1mm then use a sized rheem to get it to the correct size but remember to use rotate the rheem backward otherwise, you'll crack the resin print. (have made many smooth formlabs printed cylinders now)
Could you try to make it inline 4 or 6 ????
been watching for 6 years now. happy to u got a air hogs. every time u uploaded i would "get a air hogs" it would make the build easier to understand.
This series is an internet treasure. I can't wait to see where it ends up. Please never stop having ridiculous ideas about using compressed air for propulsion.
I'd argue not a ridiculous idea, just difficult to pull off in an efficient manner
It definitely is super awesome
He should try getting the compressed air by using heat from gasoline or a fuel oil.. 😉
Tom is my hero
@@Doribi117 something can be ridiculous and awesome at the same time =p
This wasn't even his idea, it was someone else's..he is just improving on it =p
Connect a really long hose to a ground vehicle with the air supply!😁😁😁😁
Awesome to see the clear piston/chamber! Also, the methodology of using the syringe to pour the silicone was a really smart fix!
Agreeeeeeeeeeeed !
That’s what she said.
Would be interesting to replace the metal pin with a screw and see how adjusting the length of the pin affects the performance
Or create a cylinder head with screw to adjust height
maybe an Idea? firstly you could increase the piston total movement (increasing chamber/cylinder length), when piston is going down and reach in middle of chamber the piston also reach in the chamber roles, releasing the air pressure and after that this roles will close (maybe using more rubber valves) and the piston will continue its movement going down, at this moment it will create a vacuum in the chamber when piston reach on bottom of cylinder helping the piston up again with vacuum in the chamber, this could create more power?
yes it would be like ajdusting your camshafts
Or notching back a steam engine's reverser.
@@PedroGarcia-fl1fu th-cam.com/video/ZKuevq4J4Ak/w-d-xo.html
First rule of thumb. If you’re going to launch your model airplane into a field with only one branch, the plane will always gravitate to that branch. It’s a law.
If you are going to let an object gain motion and preferably travel through air with no real influence from the ground, any object that isn't grass will gravitationally attract it
Same goes for model rockets
failing to find an appropriate branch, all flying models shall gravitate directly for the head of the most vulnerable or least observant spectator...
at least mine only target myself :)
when i got my first drone, i also got my first demonstration of its return home feature… riiiiight as it passed under a tree.
climbing that tree to shake the branch so my dad could catch it was a ton of fun, though.
Incoming 😂
I am a British gen x engineer. I have to say you are great. Your content is great generally. Your delivery, editing, choice of project... every detail... but mostly it's your infectious tenacity and dilligence. Thank you for being a highlight in my youtube playlist. More power to your elbow!
+1
An aircraft motor factory and aviation research center combined into one person. Impressive dedication and ingenuity. Wish you the best Tom, never stop!
if he can simplify his design and make a "toy-plane-air-engine" made out of items you can find at home like a 2liter pepsi bottle he could sell those "kits"
There is a lot to learn from this video. I especially liked the silicone moulding process and the R&D of the seal. Very rewarding to see it work better and better with each iteration.
Crazy to think how little thrust you’d get by simply letting the air shoot out of the bottle through a jet nozzle, but through the miracle of science, it’ll make a ton of thrust for minutes on end. Very amazing! I’m impressed.
Requires reservoir bottle for Exhaust return 🤔🤔🤔
Run time increase due to Return to source instead of vent to Atmosphere.
I often think about this as it relates to modern ICEs. You can push a few thousand pounds more than a hundred miles with just a few gallons of gas. That's crazy.
crazy ?
@@-Pkji-crazy amazing.
everything in the world is reliant on shapes and geometry
Dude... I love the way you break things down, show your process, analyze your "failures" (more like steps along the path forward,) and diagram things along the way. It's truly inspiring stuff.
3d printing is good for a lot of things, but a low friction piston cylinder is not one of them. You should design a piston and housing that fits a standard diameter glass or acrylic tube for the cylinder.
I've bought some acrylic tubes for this exact reason! I couldn't find any 12mm inside diameter tubes (diameter of my current seal design), so I ran out of time to re-design and mold new seals. But I will definitely experiment with the acrylic tubes for the 'aircraft worthy' engine!
@@TomStantonEngineeringmaybe something similar to the glass tube/graphite pistons from a company called Airpot. I got a free sample years ago to try and make a Sterling (Stirling?) engine and the fit and low friction is outstanding.
@@TomStantonEngineeringwould steel tubing work? You can get seamless hydraulic tube with 12mm ID
@@TomStantonEngineering Better option is to use a conical cylinder. and MACHINING. 3d printing is FAR AWAY from precision. as you stated there are air engines already in the market. why try to re invent the wheel since 3d printing will never have enough precision for something like this.
@@vihreelinja4743 On the one hand, note that even with his techniques, he's still improved over the engine on the market multiple times. On the other, imagine combining his techniques with their production quality...
Absolutely LOVING these research and development episodes..
I absolutely love that you got hold of the original designs from decades ago, and then smashed the record of it using lessons from their own design..
It does make me wonder if the seal inside the 25 year old box has over-hardened over all that time so is not working as well as it did new.
I flew the original airhog in a field in Pennsylvania USA. The kids I wowed are now adults. I kept the carcass of that plane to showcase energy storage and transfer in my science classes. You really have done us a huge service dissecting and improving what you’ve uncovered! Thank you so much for your persistence!
I'm 26 now, I got one of them when I was about 8-10 yrs old. I remember it being one of the coolest toys every. I looked them up, apparently they are vintage and are going for over $100
It's already been 4 years I made a 4 cylinder remix of your engine, and it's still an enjoyment to see you improving your design and sharing it. Thank you very much for everything.
Try making a compressed air version of a double or triple expansion steam engine. Those used pistons of increasing size and flowed the steam exhaust from one cylinder to the next to capture more of the power of the expanding steam.
@@greggv8turbo in a nutshell lol
@@TM450FI no, it would be more like the equivalent of running one of these engines off the extra air pressure coming out your tailpipe
how did you solve the problem created by the single sided crankshaft? did you use a traditional big end on the con rod or did you make a radial engine?
@@greggv8 there might not be sufficient pressure to allow for multiple cylinders, steam engines used these kinds of cylinders due to the fact that they had very high pressure and stroke lenghts that would allow for a limited amount of pressure difference between TDC and BDC.
I'd love to tell you the story of designing the airhogs, the engine and how long it took to perfect it. That seal was a breakthru to achieve consistency in production. The spring was equally important.
keep up the good work.
you were involved ?
I hope he sees your comment.
Following hoping he sees this
Interesting 👀
Were you part of the design team for air hogs?
I'd love to see the original engineers of the toy plane react to this vid and see if they had the same issues or discoveries as you did!
I bet they wouldn't believe a (dare I say) hobbyist at home 3D printing his own computer designs and reviewing the slow motion footage to improve it. Technology ❤ no disrespect Tom you and your content is very professional but I feel you aim for the hobbyist vibe!
Wouldn’t be too surprised to learn that the original design was also done by hobbyists!
I really do hope someone from that team sees this video. I agree it would be amazing to see the discussion on the airhog design.
@@danolver913well he is studying engineering right ? So ofc it's a hobby. I definitely was not doing that on the side when I studied engineering.
@@danolver913judging by the fact this was first released in the mid 90's they probably didn't use any computer to design this and just did hand drawn designs and calculations like almost everything back then.
Engineering is so freaking cool 🙌
Very fun too :)
thats why i want to do it lol
I genuinely treasure these videos and hearing that old airhogs sound again is great. I'm amazed at your improvements over this design and love seeing how your designs have actually been original! Please don't stop. I want to see how far this can go!
YYEEEEESSSSSS this is one of my favourite series on youtube! I love to see the development of a technology unfold in front of my eyes! Keep it up! 👀
With the performance of the older engines I felt like a model that more or less flies in a straight line is all that could ever be achieved, but this new design’s insane performance gives me hopes of one day seeing you put RC controls on it and being able to actually maneuver it!
And there’s still the possibility of putting more bottles for longer runtime, seeing if it can withstand more than 60 psi... eheheh I drool at the possibilities.
Orgasmic engineering!
at some point a pressure regulator might be the biggest hurdle
@@macswanton9622 I'm sure Tom can come up with a neat design for an adjustable pressure regulator.
I found myself giggling with the efficiency numbers of the new engines because I couldn’t believe how efficient you have made these. Congratulations and well done. Looking forward to the next video.
Wow i was not expecting the first jump in performance and then the second jump also blew me away. Love the use of resin printing as well, amazing what a $200 machine can produce these days.
try more like 2000$ , but yeah still a really low price compared to most industrial grade ones
I remember watching your initial air engine designs which largely influenced my choice to major in mechanical engineering. 5 years later and stuff like this still excites and inspires me, can't thank you enough.
I admire your resilience and passion to keep pushing and looking for better and more efficient options!
Connect a really long hose to a ground vehicle with the air supply!😁
+1
I've spent most of my life wanting to understand the Air Hogs air piston motor. It pops into my mind from time to time for the last 30 years. Amazing work! Seeing yours work puts my mind at rest. Thank you.
Bloody brilliant work. Also a great example of the iterative process. A lot of engineers who come out of projects, struggle with iteration. I think this is a great example of how reflection and research get you closer and closer to the optimal solution. The key is not allowing previous failures to discourage further iterations.
So excited to see one of your air powered planes really flying! Love this series!
Wtf, thats like the thing that i wanted to see most for months. Thank you so much! This is my favorite content of which there isnt much. And you is how i found out what my favorite content is - optimisation, upgrading of designs + pneumatic and weird engines
I'm not a massive gearhead or anything but I do so look forward to a Tom Stanton video dropping. It's such a perfect formula of sound chap breaks down relatively complex principles in a fun and absorbable way. And no TH-camy bells and whistles (obtrusive adds, shoutiness, OMG faces, overwrought camera work etc) Legend!
its so satisfying seeing how much better each iteration is. its so satisfying seeing how much better each iteration is.
I love how you were able to 5x the efficiency with the new design by just being clever and not by over engineering it. I cant wait to see it fly. Keep up the great videos!
This makes me miss my old Air Hogs plane, they were so much fun!
Great detailed breakdown, same tactics I use while creating medical equipment. Keep up the great work!
I love your channel. You opened up a brand new toy from the 90s, took high speed photography of it's inner workings in operation, disassembled it, cast it's parts, published the findings of using it's methodology... I love how you're bringing out the forgotten engineering work people did and making what theoretically anyone could do... available for us all.
I have been watching your videos for quite some time, and it's amazing to see your persistency and how far you've gone, great job!!
Excited to see a plane working with it!
I’m impressed with the engineering that went into the original toy. Kudos for getting nearly 5x efficiency that’s incredible 😀
Very cool build! In addition to all the obviously fascinating engineering, I love how you label your graphs with outlined pictures of the motors instead of just text. It's a small detail (that I may steal) which really helps to make the data clear and follow-able.
I honestly didn't think this project would get this far, those are some amazing results!
Oh wow, has it been that many years. Really love watching how your designs evolve.
Amazing! I think you should make a version where the piston is much smaller, increasing the run time significantly. Then, you can cut the engine weight down by making the walls thinner and using ribs and whatnot. Once you have an engine that has a long run time and is very light, you can make a plane out of light materials such as balsa wood and mylar. Then tune the plane and try and get it to fly for 2 minutes!
Having been a follower of the air engine saga from the beginning, it's pretty cool to see the massive improvement that happened after going back to the source. The real lessons were inside -us- airhogs all along.
What cruel irony that he practically re-invented the original design before getting ahold of one. But, oh well, at least it was fun.
Tom has gone full circle, re-inventing what had be forgotten, or unknown to him.
This not unlike the real world, where NASA is reinventing technologies to land humans on the Moon again after more than 50 years.
I don’t ever look for his videos but when they pop up I’m so captivated by what he’s doing and how that I never can skip them. I live watching and learning.
I’ve been watching this project since the start and I have to say it’s been awesome seeing you progress it. Thanks for the awesome content!
I just simply love the step by step iterations you did to make the compressed air engine even better and also resorting to reverse engineer the original air hogs motor to get the highest efficiency. The thought process and the steps that goes into making this compressed air motor is extremely interesting to watch! Can't wait for the motor to fly! Great work Tom!
It would definitely be worth trying an offset crankshaft to optimise power and efficiency on the piston downstroke.
You do a fantastic job creating these animations. Great video Tom!. Congratulations on your engineering successes. Those last graphs entered beast mode .
Back in the 80's, in the US, the "Air Jammer" compressed air powered car was my favorite toy, it utilized a cam lobe to activate the intake valve (a ball) , attaching a thick washer to the output gear, resulted in slightly slower speeds, but much longer run time. Cool vid.
I think this is my favourite video on the channel so far. I love the thought process you go through on these neat projects.
The reason your original 40 shore seals were so hard to remove from the mould is that it’s a polyurethane resin being poured into a polyurethane resin mould so the materials actually want to bond to each other! You need to use a release agent on the mould to create a barrier between the materials or instead of using 40 shore PU material use a 40 shore silicone like RTV 240 or T4
Good point!
11:49 "It's my first time"
Pretty cool. About 40 years ago, my brother and I had some toys called the Air Jammer Road Rammer made by a company called Tomy. You would use the included pump to pressurize a tank on the car, and then give it a push and off it went. We spent hours upon hours jumping it down the kitchen step or who knows what else. Thanks for the cool content (and the memory).
I remember those!
Never had one, but I remember that the commercial's tune was a bit of an earworm.
LOL
Thanks for the memory! :D
The amount of pure dopamine I receive from watching you make the engine more efficient and present it in such an understandable way is shocking but well done Tom excellent progress on the engine and really clever upgrades I absolutely love it
Congratulations Tom. You were able to make this new piston better in so many ways. This really does show that the simpler, the better.
"Too many moving parts" is a real thing!
It’s always cool to see people who devote immense amounts of time and effort into such completely niche topics purely for their own enjoyment
This is why guys invent so much stuff. The fascination with things is just never ending. This was extremely entertaining.
I had one of the early air hog planes similar to the one in the video. I think your video, research & development are really superb, I haven’t seen 3D printing in a “hobby” sense used to such exacting measures. God bless, Bill.
It’s so easy to get caught up in one half of the R&D process that you completely forget about and neglect the other. This video is a good reminder of the strides you can make when you remember to stop and do a little more research, or a couple more iterations.
On a different note, I’m very interested in seeing how much further you can improve the engine! The Air Hogs design is likely optimized for mass production rather than performance, so there’s probably many strides you can make on that front. It’d be interesting to see the effect of adjusting bore&stroke measurements, but that’d be a lot of printing… I’m sure there’s probably some equation for that somewhere 😊
I know this man takes a long time but it still blows my mind just how many times and just how much he can improve the design.
Hi Tom, you might consider glancing at the piston heads used in airsoft cylinders. They use pressure to expand standard-sized nitrile o-rings outward which delivers very good sealing and high speed/cycle wear life. The design tolerances around the o-ring would need altering because existing designs only seal while the piston slides in the forward (for your engines, upward) direction. Not sure it's applicable for your engine but it does its job very well.
im in love with your air powered projects. very excited to see the plane's performance.
This is so cool!! I love seeing the whole development process and everything!
I love it, you make the R&D part so interesting. Looking forward to seeing it fly 😊
I love this guy.
Great engineer.
Great communication.
Great sense of humor.
Excellent videos.
This is impressive! Like really impressive!
Experimenting with multi cylinder engines would be cool. I'll bet a V-twin version of this would be sick!
Multiple cylinders will multiply the:
A: Thrust (is good)
B: Friction (is bad)
C: Other Losses (is bad)
E: Air consumption (is bad depending on point A)
F: Coolness (is COOL!)
Feel free to comment on point D!
It will also go some way to eliminate the requirement for the flywheel to create the cylinder compression, since the other cylinder can now provide that. Unfortunately a V2 would probably be a bit unreliable (especially on a plane) because the ball valve is sealed by gravity as well as pressure - although maybe the effect of gravity isn't very much given the high pressure air pushing the ball out?
Either way, I'd vote for an inline 2 engine.
@@asdaneedsfunds - 2x Inline = 2x COOL!
@@asdaneedsfunds Wouldn't you still want a flywheel? Stores energy for the compression stroke, helps keep the engine running smoother. I wouldn't eliminate the flywheel, I would just adjust the weight of it until you get peak efficiency.
@@TrollingAround Double expansion makes it worth it. Steam engines used this technique, works on air engines too. Basically you just run a second engine optimized for lower pressure and feed it off the exhaust of the first engine. You're not consuming additional air, friction is still fairly minimal, and you extract way more power because your two cylinders are tuned to run at the pressures they'll normally see.
Only real downside is complexity.
Like some other people in the comments already said, a dashpot (precision ground glass cylinder with a matched graphite piston) should improve your performance even more. It's a very common part in low-delta-T Stirling engines and should be reasonably available.
I appreciate the tremendous amount of work that went into producing this video. We are fortunate to have your content.
When you picked up the air shark my days as a young tyke in the 90s. Major nostalgia
Wow, it is so satisfying seeing your engines improve so much!
Love this little series on air powered engines! It's crazy how far you've taking them!
+1
You do a fantastic job creating these animations. Great video Tom!
I enjoy the way Tom shows his iterative process for solving engineering challenges.
Currently taking calc for the first time and pursuing a mech E degree, and I have to say, your the first person who has given me a real-world example of integrals with your impulse calculations. Cheers mate!
You made it to college before anyone showed you that? I learned that junior year of high school back in 1975!
Calculus is crap until you see some really useful real life applications. Then it's still crap but amazing
Great stuff, I’d love to see you experiment with multiple piston designed engines. Perhaps starting with a v-twin!
Nah he going straight for the H 16
For achieving an air tight piston that moves freely when not under pressure you might consider the type used in Airsoft gun gearboxes. It's a piston with vent holes on the pressure face which flow into the o-ring groove behind the o-ring and push it out onto the cylinder wall creating an excellent seal. When not under compression the o-ring should barely touch the cylinder wall, and if you push it slowly into the cylinder it won't seal, but push it in fast, or introduce high pressure to the chamber and the o-ring spreads and seals.
Some racing pistons are gas ported like that to seal the rings, better also
Still, such a clever technique!
I dont know how many times Ive rewatched his air engine vids. amasing to watch
Would love to see you design, 3D print, test, and implement a radial air powered engine using all these insights!
Hey Tom, is it possible for you to make a kit for the air engine? I don’t have a 3d printer and my parents won’t let me get one so is it ok for you to make these and then sell them? Thanks
Yeah I also really want one but can’t afford 3d printer
@@Gatlin_avaiation same, i want to use it on my rc plane but i also can’t afford it :(
@@Millie_oo0 yeah I want to make a plane with it
@@Gatlin_avaiation i already have the frame of it done I just need this to make it fly… also because the motor i have is kinda overpowered 😅
@@Millie_oo0 yeah i have a old drone motor I use with a 9 volt battery witch the whole kit together is to heavy
Would you try two pistons?
This has been a wild ride of a channel watching you R&D this project phase after phase. Glorious.
What if that wasted exhaust air can be reused somehow to refill the air tank so it will run forever? You welcome
you’re welcome not you welcome
Energy cannot be created out of nowhere. The wasted exhaust air is at a lower pressure than the initial air coming into the engine. You could harness this by passing it into a second air engine, however it would be much less powerful than the initial engine since it's running on a lower air pressure.
can’t have a 100% conversion, if you catch and reuse air that will add force in the opposite direction the plane is going, without speed a plane cannot fly unfortunately
I love how everything just works for this guy. If I ever tried to do this there would be sooooo many unexpected issues I’d probably just give up
I had a couple of these planes and having a hayfield and cornfield on the property made me a happy kid
its so satisfying seeing how much better each iteration is
as always, a pleasure. reminds me of my time at university, figuring out problems in room full of nerds for nights on end. nothing of it related to our actual studies, just what we enjoyed building and coding. i know some of you will relate.
I can't tell you how pleased I am with my TH-cam algorithm today. So glad I "stumbled" on to your video today. Shared with friends I knew would appreciate it just as much. Cheers!
Man childhood memories unlocked!!! That exact airhogs airplane taught me how cylinder engines work when I was a child.
I had that exact model as a child. Thank You for the Nostalgia Bait. 😊
I am glad you have returned to this project as I enjoyed your previous attempts.
So much looking forward to seeing the model you will make for this project. 👍
With the realization of ones own potential and self-confidence in ones ability, one can build a better world.
You essentially Made a U-Cup seal. I was going to say, "you should look at the seals on bicycle suspension." A lot of bicycle suspension components rely on U-cup seals or quad rings. You might find some inspiration here.
That syringe vacuum trick was absolutely genius!
Oh man, I remember going to the park and launching my Air Hogs, which looked exactly like that one with my dad. Excellent memories. RIP dad
when I was little I tried making slotcar tires by moulding household silicone in a mould made of wax... the result worked but it was messy with air bubbles. I've never seen the technique you've shown, interesting... I thought I needed a bell jar to pull this off. Your results are awesome.
what a great video and never would have suspected the airhogs had some decent engineering behind them!
Love this cause I remember pumping my airhog up and throwing across the yard. This is literally a childhood dream to do what your attempting.
You just unlocked a memory with that Air Hog thumbnail, I had that exact plane when I was a kid!
Man I had so much fun with the skyshark as a kid. Played with it till the wings broke off, bought more, broke those, then taped the body to every kind of vehicle I could think of to make propeller powered stuff. Easily one of the best 90s toys.
I love the clear working design because the seal turning inside out gives a super clear impression of how strong the pressure is. Like when an anime villain gets punched in the face and gets their face flattened
First video I have seen from you. Wow, honestly intriguing beyond words. Was not expecting to be so interested in your work when I randomly stumbled across it.
When I learn something, or hear / see an explanation that makes me learn something, or clarifies a concept I already had a minimal understanding of, I always give a like.
Wow I’m impressed by how well these simple engines work 😯👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I have a Air Hog power pod that I built a airframe for. I also added a folding prop for a E-power motor. It fly's very well. I could have made it much lighter by using built up construction for the wing and tail, but it is robust enough to take some lumps. I did use contest grade balsa so it is not too heavy Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing more.