This model is big! 2500mm is impressive by any standard, yet the model is very practical, for instance the highly efficient balsa wing is removable for transportation. This model is highly unusual being both a scale model and a purpose built FPV/Camera platform. The Reaper UAV is a development of the Predator and represents the latest in cutting edge military technology, it is also much more than a mere surveillance aircraft, with its armament of Hellfire missiles and laser guided "smart" bombs, it is a hunter/killer with an impressive combat history.
Specifications:
Wingspan: 2500mm
Length: 1080mm
Wing Area: 32.5dm2
Wing Loading: 76-83g dm2
Airfoil: Eppler 374 Mod
Weight: 2500g~2700g
This MQ-9 comes as ARF, the following is required to complete this plane:
5~6 Channel TX/RX
36~42 Outrunner or Inrunner Brushless Motor
40A~60A ESC
2 x Standard Servo and 4 x High Torque Micro Servo
3500mAh~4000mAh 3s or 4s Lipoly Battery
For FPV use, this model obviously ticks the boxes, its difficult to argue with the design of the Reaper! There is plenty of room for FPV/Camera equipment, the scale under-slung camera pod is supplied in such a way that it can be fixed or made rotating with a little effort and comes with glazing. For FPV use obviously the model weight will increase and you may want to consider a 4s set up, prop range is 11"-12". However you fly it, this is an impressive model in every respect and is bound to be a talking point wherever it is flown.
Available from Hobbyking for US$ 100.36, see the product page for details. If you stay on the site for a while, a one-time offer window appears to budy this plane for US$ 94.96. Price may depend on your membership level at the shop.
Comments
I would like to purchase one of these models if anyone has one for sale. I am looking for a kit or partially assembled one. I do not need any R/C gear nor motors ( I have tons of that! lol!)
If you have one you haven't gotten around to building or one you have grown tired of flying, let me know.
Thank you!
Dan
I'm also working on this airframe. Yep, another slow-goer. YouTube.com has a MQ-9 Reaper put it together video but I felt somewhat undersized the electric outrunner motor - 200 watts but then it depends on what you want to do with it.
The wings (kinda removable) along with a number of other not really thought through challenges provide opportunity for experiments and improvements here. I chose the dsPIC30F4011 (UAV V3) platform for writing firmware and convert it into a bot.
@Coptaire "IMO, biz as usual!"
All depends if you include 25% crash probability during maiden to the business plan. I don't.
@Coptaire
If you seriously mess up a quadrotor, it has broken prop after stupid liftoff atempt from the ground. You just power off and at worst it suffers 0,5m drop during maiden.
If you toss this bird at 15deg pitch too high, you have it in 3 pieces 20m in front of you no matter the autopilot settings.
@Matt Fisher
'To be honest I am pretty worried about how it will fly so I am going slow with the build to make sure it all right.'
After takeoff it could turn out that it likes to fly absurdally fast because of COG or anythign not perfect and is not stable by itself at lower speed.
I would suggest checking on the ground that you can have 10min of 80% thrust on that beast so nothing overheats, also check nothing overheats after some 2min of full throttle.
Some turbulators at the end of wingtips might help (for example triangular ones).
Consider takeoff with bungee, for sure DO NOT takeoff alone from hand.
Clean wing attack line from grass and dirt.
Do not deploy flaps on approach (or even forget the idea, but consider using spoilerons).
Put cameras on the ground at 50m distance before maiden.
Make sure failsafe is set to manual mode before maiden (no chance for the autopilot to help anything).
Read forums and remarks about COG, pick the most forward one.
Much larger wheels - a must. Or eat dirt.
Pitot tube location is asking for trouble during the first landing, place atop of the fuselage on a small pylon.
Make sure the motor vibration is not affecting teh IMU - in my opinion this motor is one ugly asymmetric antibrand. Use forward mount - might reduce vibrations. Folding prop might improve blade tracking. Balance the prop anyway since you might need lots of thrust since the beginning.
Avoid using elevator during approach, set neutral elevator then very long straight, descend using throttle.
Abort is always: throttle first, then some elevator 2s later. Assume abort decision altitude 2m.
Then it should survive a few flights befor you figure out what is going on in manual mode.
Its amazing how many beginners are drawn to this design.
It is VERY easy to argue with reaper-shaped design.
It is basically useless for any high loaded flight:
-very little roll stability makes unnecessary pilot load in FPV
-airfoil that needs to be clean in order to work
-is well known for nasty stall characteristics if made in that scale
-impossible to land on the grass (wheels and stabiliser, you cannot remove both)
-difficult to hold for tossing under the wing
-a lot of protruding elements, add to this all the other real modem antennas
-very low yaw damping, relatively flat vtail, long heavy nose and large nose side surface, tendency to spin unstability
-cannot toss comfortably from hand, high power propeller near the face
-high wing loading in RC version (7x-8xg/dm2 means 110-130g/dm2 in UAV version)
-camera mount completely unprotected, you basically land on this since evey landing ends by pluging the nose in the ground
-large windspan with no dihedral will hit all bushes during landing
-even if you manage to fly in FPV, you must avoid all narrow passages = boring flying
REAPER layout is THE LAST THING YOU NEED for any FPV/UAV purpose
At 3kg AUW it will be hard to toss when holding RC transmitter, prone to stall.
With 4Ah I would expect no more than 20min manual, automatic doesn't matter since you will crash it before you manage to tune it.
Pick Piper Cub and you will be ahead of this. Thsi toy looks sleek, but has been designed by somebody without any clue about operational reality that just scaled down, simplified a few things, ignored aerodynamics implications and let Chinese kids to do it in quantity, so that older kids from previously developed countries can waste their time trying to use the design in a way it was never intended to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AyVh1_vWYQ
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