2.4m DIY Twin boom for Aerial Photography, Video, GIS, Photogrammetry
Hi Forum, I am a fairly new user to APM2 (made about 4 successful flights on a skywalker.) And I am looking at building a twin boom aircraft for taking Aerial Pics to be used for GIS, land surveying etc.. I initially built an off the shelf twin boom called the URSUS, but due to its wooden spa construction, it broke in half in mid air. I have added glue, carbon and ply reinforcements, but now its too heavy to fly. Therefore I thought i'd try and build something myself using its power system
Here are my objectives
- Must be able to accommodate a roll gimbal (I made this for the URSUS)
- Must fly for 45 + mins
- Must be shower/rain proof
- Must Fit in the back of a Volvo V50!
- Must be able to fly slow or fairly fast into wind
- Airframe without power system should weight less than 1.5kg (based on weights taken from other airframes in this size range)
Based on some research, I have discovered that aircraft in the 2.2 - 2.6m range can achieve this. I have a moderate amount of building experience, using polystyrene, depron. But have never tried to build anything that performs well.
I am going to make the Fuse out of fiberglass, and the wings out of EPP.
Some technical details...
Wings
- Wingspan - 2200mm
- Chord - 250mm (giving an aspect ratio of 1:8.8 )
- Profile - Clark Y (noticed a lot of these aircraft use a clark-y profile)
Fuselage
- box section - 120mm x 120mm x 600mm (excluding nose cone and tail cone)
- Booms - 51cm, From trailing edge of wing to start of vertical fin
Power System
- Esc - Castle Creations Phoenix 45
- Motor - Ultrafly F/18/10 1000KV Brushless motor (model number uf-mtr-f1810)
- Prop - 10 x 7
- Lipo - 2 x 5000mah 3s 11.1v
Some pics... there will be a nice cowl on front and back of fuselage, but i cant do that with my limited CAD skills!
This thread and idea is a product of realizing that the lower end off-the-shelf airframes are not capable of what I want to achieve. I have reached that conclusion in my Arial Photography thread here.. The Skywalker is great, but can't fit a roll gimbal in it (I keep getting pictures at different angles). The Ursus is nice, but the construction is too weak for my needs. Whilst working on a new airframe, I will be continuing to use the overweight ursus to perfect my roll gimbal. However a new airframe is needed to get longer flight times. I quite like the medium priced hugin, but thats a little out of my price range right now.
I can get EPP wing cores cut for £40, and a fiberglass fuse made for next to nothing.
I have a few questions -
- What distance should there be between the booms?
- What is the best aspect ratio?
- What thickness should the carbon booms be?
- What height should the rudders be?
- Is it best to go with an inverted V or H tail?
If anyone with aerodynamic knowledge has any fairly simple calculations to see if this will work, please could you let me know! or any other thoughts for that matter, positive or negative!
Cheers
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by james sowell on -
can you buy that plane in the video?
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Permalink Reply by Wanabigaplane on -
I wouldn't buy any aircraft that has been treated like that !
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Permalink Reply by Jake Stew on -
I should have posted links...
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/taigacam-robust-plane-for
Unfortunately the website is in a foreign language...
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Permalink Reply by james sowell on
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thanks for the link
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Permalink Reply by Emin Bu on
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Hello...did you consider to buy one instead of making it...bormatec have what you need at afordable price i think...check Maja model http://bormatec.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&a...
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Permalink Reply by Richard on -
I did, However with landing gear and 220cm wings, and shipping, the total cost is 302 euros / £243. Which is very reasonable for what you receive. And i did consider it. However I am making the entire airframe for ~£100.
- Fuselage - Free
- Wings - £45
- Carbon Tail Booms - ~£12 x 2 = £24
- Rear Landing Gear - £25
- Nose Wheel - Free
- Tail surfaces, glue, fixings, hinges, and linkages are going to be made from material I already have
Yes It is more work, but I have the time, I do like the Maja though, its a nice airframe.
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Permalink Reply by Richard Unwin on -
Richard, here are some pics of my front gear setup.
[IMG]http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee451/runwin2/10a96cc4.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee451/runwin2/a8a99779.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee451/runwin2/3385caf1.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee451/runwin2/461774d7.jpg[/IMG]
I agree with an earlier post, the front gear when they get long take alot hits, so i made mine with a bearing machined into a brass plate that then is bolted to the outside of the fuse. The other end is then supported in a standard plastic LG support with the servo mounted close by and connected with a parrell wire link. The Lg was sourced from hobbyking but was not quite long enough so i used some 5mm spring wire to extend the shaft length and this is what comes through the bearing and is supported. As it turns out this forms a slight weak point which if I stuff a landing and land too hard results in the gear bending back a little. Its is easily fixed in the field by bending back into place and in my mind saves the rest of the plane from damage.
Good luck with the rest of your build you seem mto be steaming along well with ideas and the progress on the fuse looks good, you will have a ton of room inside your plane.
Richie
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Permalink Reply by Richard on
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Hi, Quick question, I have almost all of the parts to continue with the build except the tail booms. I am looking at getting the 12mm outerdiamer, 10mm internal diameter tubes made from pultruded carbon fibre.
I read on the website that these types of tubes are vunerable ot crushing:-
"Pultruded tubes feature 100% longitudinal fibre orientation which gives them excellent strength along their length but does make them vulnerable to crushing forces."
This doesn't sound great, before i click the buy button, does anyone with Carbon fibre knowledge know if they will be strong enough?Cheers
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Permalink Reply by Richard on
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Update - got two aluminium tubes from the local hardware store - they seem quite light @ 96g each, 12mm Outer dia, 10mm inner dia, 1000mm long. Only £5 each so not too pricey, they seem pretty strong, Maybe stronger than the pultruded carbon fiber tubes, which apparently crush quite easily.
Also looked through some old plane parts i had lying around, and I happen to have an old wing 300mm x 2400mm Clark y wing that I cut myself, it used to have twin engines but they have since been removed, the surface is pretty damaged, but as i'm still waiting for my EPP wing, I think i am going to spend some time cleaning this one up. I am also going to make an EPP fuselage from 20mm EPP Sheeting... The Carbon Fiber fuse a friend made fo rme is going to be too small, I think it needs to double in Length!
below: Carbon fuse 120mm x 120mm x 600mm - Alloy tubes, 2.4m wing
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Permalink Reply by Ellison Chan on -
The dimensions you're looking for seem to match TREX 450 tail booms. The inner D is 10mm, OD is 12mm, and length is 102mm length. Weight is only 17g, and made specifically for flying models.
They're cheap too, if you get them on ebay, $1 each, in quantities of 5:
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