F/A 18 D Hornet on magnetic hover display

Holger Kranich
Nice way to display it! Was a hard work to make it a bug, hu?

Andre Hoencher
Very nice. I like it. 🙂

Burkhard D
Cool!😎

Acki
Long time not seen. Looks very cool! 👍

Choppa Nutta
very cool! 👍
love the over head shots !

Ulf any chance you could do a video of how mobile the model is over the magnet
because that is a lot of height to be floating so high and yet so stable, and the
funky angles you can move it through.
And can you make it spin on the spot ? 😄

Anyhow what a great display !!
I want one ! 😄

Marcel Klemmer
Yepp, cool 🙂

Doug
Ulf, this is really neat. The model looks great, too.

Mathias Carl
Realy nice idea and very good built version of it. 👍

Ron Dyson
Well done Ulf, I gather there is also a magnet in the plane as well . I must try this . Cheers mate from Australia ....Ron

Paulo Castro
Wow! That's really cool!
How have you done that?

Greco Otero
Wow that's one of the coolest things I ever seen,

Kerry COX
I would like to do that with my Testors "Area 51" flying disk. 🙂 👍

Cortex
cool : )

Ulf Petersen
Thank you for your kind words, mates! I appreciate that very much.

@Choppa: of course I can make a video according to your request, I just wonder if I could post it here directly or if I have to register to YouTube before. I'll figure out, just a little patience please. The next three days I will be on a business trip.

@Ron: You're right, there is a counter magnet glued into the center of the fuselage.

@Paulo: Revell offered some kits with the complete equipment you need. Check this out:
scalemates.com/search-solr.p..q=magic+flight&qs=Search

Choppa Nutta
Awesome Ulf 😄

look forward it, what I don't is how one magnet can hold one other magnet up and stably without sliding off or pinging round and sticking to the base. I really want to know how it works so I can replicate it.

How many magnets in the plane ?
How many magnets in the base ?

in the photo it looks like one cylinder which means it must be a ring magnet with the south pole in the middle and the north around the outside maybe ??
So that magnet is both pulling and pushing at the same time ?
that could explain the stability as the model locks into that stable point of the push and pull balancing out.
I want to know how it works and how much you can move the model around, is it fiddly putting the model on to get the sweet spot or can you virtually throw the model at and ping ! it goes into auto hover ? 😄

Anyhow, gotta say I quite fancy this one 🙂
expensive though at £30 and up on ebay etc.
will definitely have a look around for one though 🙂
scalemates.com/kits/155667-revell-09104-fokker-dr-i

Roberto Rocat
This is a dio I can really like 🙂 Bravo!

Choppa Nutta
btw Ulf, you will need to sign up to Youtube and create your own channel etc. to be able to upload videos 🙂

coporado
Very cool idea Ulf and excellent work on the plane! Gives completely new opportunities to aircraft modellers for presenting their models in their "natural surrounding" - the skies. 👍

Scott Dutton
That is so cool, I'm intrigued now, damn you ........

Derek Huggett
@Choppa - Look a bit more closely at some of Ulfs photographs to see the 'magic'..there appear to be 3 or 4 very fine tension/guide wires holding the subject in position over the magnet in the base. That is what I would guess stops it 'sliding off' or repeatedly trying to head 'North'!

All 'smoke and mirrors' stuff....great!! 😄 👍

Marko
Excellent work. Even better presentation.

Choppa Nutta
Derek I just had a closer look and my levitation dreams have just been shattered !!
Still though, I did have to look twice for the string so it is still very effective illusion etc.
For a moment there though I thought we were witnessing genuine levitation !! 🙂

Markus Antonius
i had the fokker version... pretty neat illusion. but beware if it stumbles... it will smash down on the magnet.

Choppa Nutta

Yeah that would be a right Fokker if it smashed into the base 😉
I have some GeoMag construction toy and had a go at creating a mag lev bed, it was a fail... oh well.

The string on this really foxed, I was wondering how did they get so much height out of it.. haha 🙂
anyhow, there is this maglev that is string less but the height is pretty low by comparison.
would be nice to find something that can do it properly, although a magnet powerful enough to really do the levitation would probably ended pulling cutlery from across the room !!

Still though it is a really cool display 🙂

[img1]

Markus Antonius
choppa: i think i still have the base (pimped with wood), magnet and strings attached to the base. i don't need it anylonger, you can have it if you want

Choppa Nutta
Really Markus ?
That would be mega awesome of you !!

I have a Revell 1/50 Snowspeeder this would be perfect for ! 😄
But really, that would be so cool of you, I'll PM you, thank you so much 🙂

Anthony Flanagan
Very, very kool! 👍👍👍

Derek Huggett
Choppa - Just a thought now the term 'mag lev' has been used...remember the magical 'mag lev trains'? Set up a miniature track in your den and have a little F-18 (or whatever floats your boat), plus all your modelling tools (oops), perpetually 'in the circuit' around you as you work - now that would truly be ultra cool!!! Er, time for my return to the real world I think!

Well done Ulf for getting us thinking with a brilliant piece of work! 👍 👍😉

Choppa Nutta
haha Derek, already starting building a mag lev train set for just that purpose😉 🙂
just kidding, superconducting magnets are a nightmare to keep below -70 degrees 😄

But there are ways of using ordinary magnets to get levitations going like the above image but it does seem more difficult than i hoped 🙂

Anyhow, Markus has been awesome enough to offer me the stringed version for which I am most grateful 🙂
..... and so is my Snowspeeder 😄

Ulf Petersen
Hello Guys, I have been absent two days and was not able to answer.
Thank you so much for your incredible response on this tiny little model! 🙂

In case there are still questions how this thing works: There is a prismatic magnet that fits into the fuselage glued into the center of the model. The other magnet you can see on picture #7. Far from being a physicist, able to explain the principle, I would say that the sheet metal disc underneath the big magnet as well as the four little sheet pieces glued to the bottom side of the base are forming and stabilizing the magnetic field.
The model is anchored by three filament strings that have to be adjusted precisely in order to bring the model into correct position. The threads are led through three separate holes in the base. This way the model is prevented from rotating.

I guess changing to another model would be possible if you can make sure, that the weight is equal and the smaller magnet can be fixed in the center of gravity of the model.

For heavier models I would recommend to switch to Neodymium magnets:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neodymium_magnet
Those come with up to 8 times the force of a ferro magnet but I am afraid it will take a remarkable amount of research and much try and error until it works...

Choppa Nutta

We're only say nice things Ulf coz we like you 😉 😄

Anyhow,
"There is a prismatic magnet that fits into the fuselage"

I wonder what you mean by this, are you referring to its shape, surface decoration or the type of magnet field it generates ??
This one has me utterly foxed !! 😮

Anywahays 🙂
Markus and I have done a wee deal for his one, getting the base the strings & hooks and the main magnet and steel shielding but not the magnet inside the plane, I do have some GeoMags that I can cut up and install as many as needed to get it to work 🙂
One for the Snow speeder 😄

great link btw Ulf, had a quick look on ebay worth exploring to get some, maybe enough to have a table covered in them so the model can float unattached 😄 🙂

Derek Huggett
Anyone got any dilithium crystals? 🙂

Choppa Nutta
I don't need dilithium crystals to warp my models !😉 😄

Ulf Petersen
"Prismatic" is only referring to the shape of the magnet.🙂

Choppa Nutta
So is it pyramid shaped then ?
To describe the shape another way 🙂

Ulf Petersen
No, not really... :-\
"ashlar", "cuboid" and "building block" are the other expressions I found in the translator. Is that better?

Glenn
"There is a prismatic magnet that fits into the fuselage" ???
So that looks like the Pink Floyd album cover right! 😮

Choppa Nutta
I am confused, utterly 🙂

so it looks like cube or brick shape then ?
rectangular, square sided, cuboid, oblong ?

Prismatic implies a Prism, a triangular shape used for refracting light and redirecting it as well as splitting light it into its component colours.

So when you said Prismatic Magnet, I said to myself -
"WOW ! they can refract Magnetic Waves now ???" 😄
Markus said his one was Oblong, Rectangular shaped
so I am guessing this what you really meant 🙂

Thank you Ulf for trying to explain though,
I realise English is a second language for you
and translation of unusual words is always going
somewhere between difficult and hilarious 😄 😄 😄

But your efforts are appreciated 🙂

Ulf Petersen
Hi Choppa! Sorry for not answering any more.
Well, the fuselage magnet is more or less brick shaped, like you said.
In the meantime I have scanned the construction manual for another fellow modeller. The manual shows precisely all necessary steps. If you are interested just give me your e-mail address via PM so I could send you the manual. The file is a little less than 10MB large.

Tahir Özcivan
I really like it. Not a standing model as usual but it is really flying, Congs mate !

Choppa Nutta
Cheers Ulf, will do so soon 🙂
What Markus had left has arrived a couple of days ago and I've been having a play 🙂
I need to get some of those small Neodymium Magnets for the Snowspeeder as the ones I have are just a bit to weak really, but the instructions will be worth a look for sure 👍 🙂