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46-429: The kitbuilt two seat lightplane was designed by Dean Wilson in 1983, the first prototype flying in 1983 and appearing at Oshkosh that year. Kits were produced by Light Aero with several names (Bandit, Lite, Magnum and Mk.IV) with many options including two wing designs, the choice of tricycle , tailwheel , ski or float undercarriages, rescue parachutes and a variety of engines. Lite Aero production continued until

92-557: A "crazy idea" ( Schnapsidee in his own words). Zuse's workshop on Methfesselstraße 7 (along with the Z3) was destroyed in an Allied Air raid in late 1943 and the parental flat with Z1 and Z2 on 30 January the following year, whereas the successor Z4 , which Zuse had begun constructing in 1942 in new premises in the Industriehof on Oranienstraße 6, remained intact. On 3 February 1945, aerial bombing caused devastating destruction in

138-542: A built-in roll cage). Buggies of this type are called sandrails because of the rail frame. Sandrails, as with the VW Bug, often have the engine located behind the driver. Sizes can vary from a small engined one seat size to 4 seat, 8+ cylinder vehicles. Sandrails can have panels or custom shaped body coverings over the rails and tubing that comprise the vehicle, though many are left bare. Amateur rocketry sometimes known as amateur experimental rocketry or experimental rocketry

184-471: A calculation unit based on telephone relays. The telephone relays used in his machines were largely collected from discarded stock. Despite the absence of conditional jumps, the Z3 was a Turing complete computer. However, Turing-completeness was never considered by Zuse (who was unaware of Turing's work and had practical applications in mind) and only demonstrated in 1998 (see History of computing hardware ). The Z3,

230-470: A long time, starting with the Victorian era pioneer Charles Babbage in the 1820s. A century later, Konrad Zuse built his own machine when electromechanical relay technology was widely available. The hobby took off with the early development of microprocessors and, since then, many enthusiasts have constructed their own computers. A homebuilt vehicle is a wider concept than a kit car. A homebuilt vehicle

276-469: A machine that works. Examples of home-built machinery [ edit ] Amateur radio homebrew – Homebrew is an amateur radio slang term for home-built, noncommercial radio equipment. Amateur telescope making – The field of amateur telescope making is considered an offshoot of the amateur astronomy community. Amateur telescope makers (sometimes called ATMs), as their name implies, are not paid professionals. They build their telescopes for

322-525: A memory based on magnetic storage. Unable to do any hardware development, he continued working on Plankalkül , eventually publishing some brief excerpts of his thesis in 1948 and 1959; the work in its entirety, however, remained unpublished until 1972. The PhD thesis was submitted at University of Augsburg , but it was rejected because Zuse forgot to pay the DM  400 university enrollment fee. The rejection did not bother him. Plankalkül slightly influenced

368-400: A period of 15 years. Homebuilt machines are machines built outside of specialised workshops or factories. This can include different things such as kit cars or homebuilt computers , but normally it pertains to homebuilt aircraft , also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes. Homebuilt aircraft or kit cars are constructed by amateurs. Homebuilt computers have been built at home for

414-597: A team from the Free University of Berlin . Donald Knuth suggested a thought experiment : What might have happened had the bombing not taken place, and had the PhD thesis accordingly been published as planned? In 1956, Zuse began to work on a high precision, large format plotter . It was demonstrated at the 1961 Hanover Fair , and became well known also outside of the technical world thanks to Frieder Nake 's pioneering computer art work. Other plotters designed by Zuse include

460-569: A workshop on the opposite side in Methfesselstraße 7 and stretching through the block to Belle-Alliance Straße 29 (renamed and renumbered as Mehringdamm 84 in 1947). In 1941, he improved on the basic Z2 machine, and built the Z3 . On 12 May 1941 Zuse presented the Z3, built in his workshop, to the public. The Z3 was a binary 22-bit floating-point calculator featuring programmability with loops but without conditional jumps, with memory and

506-403: Is a hobby in which participants experiment with fuels and make their own rocket motors, launching a wide variety of types and sizes of rockets. Amateur rocketeers have been responsible for significant research into hybrid rocket motors, and have built and flown a variety of solid, liquid, and hybrid propellant motors. On May 17, 2004 Civilian Space eXploration Team (CSXT) successfully launched

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552-560: Is a motor vehicle (car, truck or motorcycle) built by an individual instead of a manufacturer. These machines may be constructed "from scratch", from plans, or from assembly kits. Outside of the United States (for example in Russia ) people wishing to build such complex machinery often have no professional networks to rely on for spare parts, plans, or advice in the matter and therefore have to rely on their ingenuity and intuition in order to build

598-478: Is based on a gear drive that employs rotary motion (e.g. provided by a crank) to assemble modular components from a storage space, elevating a tube-shaped tower; the process is reversible, and inverting the input direction will deconstruct the tower and store the components. In 2009, the Deutsches Museum restored Zuse's original 1:30 functional model that can be extended to a height of 2.7 m. Zuse intended

644-536: Is carried on the fin just above the upper fuselage line. The aircraft's conventional rudder and elevator controls are cable operated. Wilson's original intent developing the Avid Flyer was to offer an economical home-built aircraft to bridge the gap between conventional aircraft of the "Piper Cub" / "Taylorcraft" / "Aeronca" category and the minimalist ultralight aircraft such as the "Quicksilver" that had not yet matured into acceptable levels of reliability and safety in

690-582: The DLR ), which used his work for the production of glide bombs . Zuse built the S1 and S2 computing machines, which were special purpose devices which computed aerodynamic corrections to the wings of radio-controlled flying bombs. The S2 featured an integrated analog-to-digital converter under program control, making it the first process-controlled computer. In 1941 Zuse started a company, Zuse Apparatebau (Zuse Apparatus Construction), to manufacture his machines, renting

736-661: The Ford Motor Company , using his artistic skills in the design of advertisements. He started work as a design engineer at the Henschel aircraft factory in Schönefeld near Berlin . This required the performance of many routine calculations by hand, leading him to theorize and plan a way of doing them by machine. Beginning in 1935, he experimented in the construction of computers in his parents' flat on Wrangelstraße 38, moving with them into their new flat on Methfesselstraße 10,

782-602: The Luisenstadt , the area around Oranienstraße , including neighbouring houses. This event effectively brought Zuse's research and development to a complete halt. The partially finished, telephone relay-based Z4 computer was then packed and moved from Berlin on 14 February, arriving in Göttingen approximately two weeks later. These machines contributed to the Henschel Werke Hs 293 and Hs 294 guided missiles developed by

828-850: The Wayback Machine ^ Radio Terms and Abbreviations Archived 2008-06-23 at the Wayback Machine ^ CSXT web site: "Welcome to CSXT - the Civilian Space eXploration Team" . Archived from the original on 2006-07-13 . Retrieved 2009-04-18 . ^ "HobbySpace - Rocketry" . ^ Boat terms Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Homebuilt_machines&oldid=1106273448 " Categories : Homebuilt aircraft Kit cars Amateur radio Hobbies Hidden category: Webarchive template wayback links Konrad Zuse Konrad Ernst Otto Zuse ( German: [ˈkɔnʁaːt ˈtsuːzə] ; 22 June 1910 – 18 December 1995)

874-524: The German military between 1941 and 1945, which were the precursors to the modern cruise missile . The circuit design of the S1 was the predecessor of Zuse's Z11 . Zuse believed that these machines had been captured by occupying Soviet troops in 1945. While working on his Z4 computer, Zuse realised that programming in machine code was too complicated. He started working on a PhD thesis, containing groundbreaking research years ahead of its time, mainly

920-453: The Nazi war effort. Much later, he suggested that in modern times, the best scientists and engineers usually have to choose between either doing their work for more or less questionable business and military interests in a Faustian bargain , or not pursuing their line of work at all. After Zuse retired, he focused on his hobby of painting. He signed his paintings as "Kuno [von und zu] See". Zuse

966-514: The North Pole on 7 May in three stages. They were the first ultralights to do so. Data from Simpson 2001 General characteristics Performance Related development Homebuilt (Redirected from Homebuilt ) [REDACTED] A hand-crafted, coal-fired, 1:8 scale 2-10-0 'live steam' locomotive in 7 + 1 ⁄ 4  in ( 184 mm ) gauge, built in 14,000 hours over

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1012-505: The Z1 and its original blueprints were destroyed with his parents' flat and many neighbouring buildings by a British air raid in World War II . Zuse completed his work entirely independently of other leading computer scientists and mathematicians of his day. Between 1936 and 1945, he was in near-total intellectual isolation. In 1939, Zuse was called to military service , where he was given

1058-505: The ZUSE Z90 and ZUSE Z9004. In 1967, Zuse suggested that the universe itself is running on a cellular automaton or similar computational structure ( digital physics ); in 1969, he published the book Rechnender Raum (translated into English as Calculating Space ). Between 1989 and 1995, Zuse conceptualized and created a purely mechanical, extensible, modular tower automaton he named "helix tower" ( "Helixturm" ). The structure

1104-434: The aluminum tube spars using a filled epoxy compound. The Avid Flyer features Junkers style one-piece flaperons supported by three offset hinge arms. The Junkers design moves the control surfaces well underneath the wing, where they remain in undisturbed smooth airflow at low speed and/or higher climb angles. The welded steel tube fuselage is flat sided, narrowing towards a braced cruciform tail group. The horizontal tailplane

1150-465: The company went bankrupt in 1998. Avid Aircraft reappeared in 2003, but by 2010 the kits, including new variants, and components were produced by Airdale Flyer . The Avid Flyer is a conventional layout, single engine, side by side two seat light aircraft, with a strut-braced high wing configuration. Aluminum tubes serve as leading edge/main spar and rear spar, each wing being supported by a pair of tubular lift struts. Sawn plywood wing ribs are bonded to

1196-417: The design of ALGOL 58 but was itself implemented only in 1975 in a dissertation by Joachim Hohmann. Heinz Rutishauser , one of the inventors of ALGOL , wrote: "The very first attempt to devise an algorithmic language was undertaken in 1948 by K. Zuse. His notation was quite general, but the proposal never attained the consideration it deserved." Further implementations followed in 1998 and then in 2000 by

1242-462: The early 1980s. The ability to fly from short, unimproved, and back-country strips was also one of Wilson's design priorities. Due to its light weight, good power-to-weight ratio , and design features such as the Junkers flaperons, the Avid Flyer excels in this type of environment and STOL operations. Recent developments in small aircraft engine design and reliability have brought the Avid Flyer well into

1288-426: The enjoyment of the hobby , or so they can make a personal contribution to the field of astronomy . [REDACTED] Custom made dune buggy Dune buggy - popular method of building a dune buggy involves construction of a vehicle frame from steel tubing formed and welded together. The advantage of this method is that the fabricator can change fundamental parts of the vehicle (usually the suspension and addition of

1334-463: The first process control computer. In 1941, he founded one of the earliest computer businesses, producing the Z4 , which became the world's first commercial computer. From 1943 to 1945 he designed Plankalkül , the first high-level programming language . In 1969, Zuse suggested the concept of a computation-based universe in his book Rechnender Raum ( Calculating Space ). Much of his early work

1380-613: The first amateur high-power rocket into space, achieving an altitude of 72 miles (115 km). Prior to that the Reaction Research Society on November 23, 1996 launched a solid-fueled rocket, designed by longtime member George Garboden, to an altitude of 50 miles (80 km) from the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. Stitch and glue is a simple boat building method which uses plywood, epoxy glue, and "stitches" and eliminates

1426-482: The first fully operational electromechanical computer, was partially financed by German government-supported DVL, which wanted their extensive calculations automated. A request by his co-worker Helmut Schreyer —who had helped Zuse build the Z3 prototype in 1938 —for government funding for an electronic successor to the Z3 was denied as "strategically unimportant". In 1937, Schreyer had advised Zuse to use vacuum tubes as switching elements; Zuse at this time considered it

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1472-488: The first high-level programming language, Plankalkül ("Plan Calculus") and, as an elaborate example program, the first real computer chess engine. After the 1945 Luisenstadt bombing, he fled from Berlin to the rural Allgäu . In the extreme deprivation of post-war Germany Zuse was unable to build computers. Zuse founded one of the earliest computer companies: the Zuse-Ingenieurbüro Hopferau . Capital

1518-881: The first in Europe. Konrad Zuse was born in Berlin on 22 June 1910. In 1912, his family moved to East Prussian Braunsberg (now Braniewo in Poland ), where his father was a postal clerk. Zuse attended the Collegium Hosianum in Braunsberg, and in 1923, the family moved to Hoyerswerda , where he passed his Abitur in 1928, qualifying him to enter university. He enrolled at Technische Hochschule Berlin (now Technische Universität Berlin ) and explored both engineering and architecture, but found them boring. Zuse then pursued civil engineering, graduating in 1935. After graduation, Zuse worked for

1564-406: The full construction to reach a height of 120 m, and envisioned it for use with wind power generators and radio transmission installations. Between 1987 and 1989, Zuse recreated the Z1, suffering a heart attack midway through the project. It cost 800,000  DM (approximately $ 500,000) and required four individuals (including Zuse) to assemble it. Funding for this retrocomputing project

1610-505: The need for stems and chines. Plywood panels are cut to detailed profiles and stitched together to form an accurate hull shape, without the need for forms or special tools. This technique is also called "tack and tape", and "stitch and tape". Gallery [ edit ] [REDACTED] A typical wood and fabric construction amateur-built, the Bowers Fly Baby . [REDACTED] A Pietenpol Air Camper under construction, showing

1656-604: The realm of being seen as a highly capable and economically viable choice for light sport use. By about 2008, some 2,000 Flyer kits had been built over five continents. 346 Flyers and Magnums appear on the European (excluding Russian) civil registers. Perhaps the most remarkable flight was that made by Hubert de Chevigny in an Avid Lite 532 equipped with an additional 300 L (66 Imp gal, 79 US gal) fuel tank. Accompanied by Nicholas Hulot in an Aviasud Mistral , he left from Resolute, Canada on 2 April 1987, reaching

1702-697: The resources to ultimately build the Z2 . In September 1940 Zuse presented the Z2, covering several rooms in the parental flat, to experts of the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt (DVL; German Research Institute for Aviation). The Z2 was a revised version of the Z1 using telephone relays . In 1940, the German government began funding him and his company through the Aerodynamische Versuchsanstalt (AVA, Aerodynamic Research Institute, forerunner of

1748-600: The street leading up the Kreuzberg , Berlin. Working in his parents' apartment in 1936, he produced his first attempt, the Z1 , a floating-point binary mechanical calculator with limited programmability, reading instructions from a perforated 35 mm film. In 1937, Zuse submitted two patents that anticipated a von Neumann architecture . In 1938, he finished the Z1 which contained some 30,000 metal parts and never worked well due to insufficient mechanical precision. On 30 January 1944,

1794-624: The wooden frame structure that will be covered with aircraft fabric. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Homebilt guns from the USSR [REDACTED] Borz , a weapon of insurgency that is built in tiny workshops which can qualify it as "homebuilt" [REDACTED] Fiberfab FT Bonito, a kit-car on a VW Beetle chassis. [REDACTED] Locost frame and body panels. [REDACTED] A stitched canoe hull under construction. Notes [ edit ] ^ Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles: Salvage Archived 2009-04-16 at

1840-522: Was a German civil engineer, pioneering computer scientist , inventor and businessman. His greatest achievement was the world's first programmable computer; the functional program-controlled Turing-complete Z3 became operational in May 1941. Thanks to this machine and its predecessors, Zuse is regarded by some as the inventor and father of the modern computer. Zuse was noted for the S2 computing machine, considered

1886-653: Was an atheist . Zuse died on 18 December 1995 in Hünfeld , Hesse (near Fulda ) from heart failure. Zuse received several awards for his work: The Zuse Institute Berlin is named in his honour. The Konrad Zuse Medal of the Gesellschaft für Informatik , and the Konrad Zuse Medal of the Zentralverband des Deutschen Baugewerbes (Central Association of German Construction), are both named after Zuse. A replica of

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1932-532: Was financed by his family and commerce, but after 1939 he was given resources by the government of Nazi Germany . Due to World War II , Zuse's work went largely unnoticed in the United Kingdom and United States. Possibly his first documented influence on a US company was IBM 's option on his patents in 1946. The Z4 also served as the inspiration for the construction of the ERMETH , the first Swiss computer and one of

1978-716: Was not until 1949 that Zuse was able to resume work on the Z4. He would show the computer to the mathematician Eduard Stiefel of the ETH Zurich. The two men settled a deal to lend the Z4 to the ETH. In November 1949, Zuse founded another company, Zuse KG, in Haunetal-Neukirchen ; in 1957, the company's head office moved to Bad Hersfeld . The Z4 was finished and delivered to the ETH Zurich in July 1950, where it proved very reliable. At that time, it

2024-621: Was provided by Siemens and a consortium of five companies. Konrad Zuse married Gisela Brandes in January 1945, employing a carriage, himself dressed in tailcoat and top hat and with Gisela in a wedding veil, for Zuse attached importance to a "noble ceremony". Their son Horst , the first of five children, was born in November 1945. While Zuse never became a member of the Nazi Party , he is not known to have expressed any doubts or qualms about working for

2070-589: Was raised in 1946 through ETH Zurich and an IBM option on Zuse's patents. In 1947, according to the memoirs of the German computer pioneer Heinz Billing from the Max Planck Institute for Physics , there was a meeting between Alan Turing and Konrad Zuse in Göttingen . The encounter had the form of a colloquium . Participants were Womersley , Turing, Porter from England and a few German researchers like Zuse, Walther, and Billing. (For more details see Herbert Bruderer, Konrad Zuse und die Schweiz ). It

2116-607: Was the only working digital computer in Central Europe, and the second computer in the world to be sold or loaned, beaten only by the BINAC , which never worked properly after it was delivered. Other computers, all numbered with a leading Z, up to Z43, were built by Zuse and his company. Notable are the Z11 , which was sold to the optics industry and to universities, and the Z22 , the first computer with

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