Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on April 13, 2010 at 10:58pm

I wonder if its a pig to fly, by that I mean real hard. Also have to wonder about payload, But as you say first one that I have seen as well actually working.

Comment by Marc Ramsey on April 13, 2010 at 11:39pm

Tilt-rotors and tilt-wings make for cool models, but I would think they are are of marginal utility for small UAVs due to added complexity and weight. A tail-sitter UAV (think Convair XFY Pogo) would have similar VTOL capability and endurance, and be a lot less costly to build. No need to keep the fuselage horizontal for takeoff/landing if there are no humans aboard...

3D Robotics Comment by Chris Anderson on April 13, 2010 at 11:52pm

@Marc: very good point. Must. Stop. Thinking. Like. A. Human!

Comment by Mike on April 14, 2010 at 12:27am

Isn't there something called a 'helicopter' that has those capabilities?

Comment by Marc Ramsey on April 14, 2010 at 12:48am

A fixed wing VTOL aircraft has better range, endurance, and speed than a helicopter, if you only need vertical takeoff/landing and limited hovering...

Comment by Bart on April 14, 2010 at 1:13am

"No need to keep the fuselage horizontal for takeoff/landing if there are no humans aboard"
But if you want to take vertical aerial photo's, you can fly to each waypoint and hover to take a photo. It all depends on the numbers. Does the model fly faster in airplane-mode than quad (ore other number) rotor thingy, Does it hover on a GPS point, How does it react/combine with a autopilot. Is it rigid enough? How fast does it drain the batteries. etc
@Chris: sure but tickling the human senses is worth trying and this product does tickle mine for sure! ;-)

Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on April 14, 2010 at 3:10am

@Mike helicopters use an awful lot of power to get the job done.

Comment by Krzysztof Bosak on April 14, 2010 at 3:13am

@Bart:
"But if you want to take vertical aerial photo's, you can fly to each waypoint and hover to take a photo."
For me this is not necessary.
The wind is never null, in most cases you would need 5-20km/h forward speed to be stationary over ground.
Hovering is only necessary for T/O+landing, as ground-level wind is smaller and the space is limited.

Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on April 14, 2010 at 3:27am

For the amount of faff involved in big rotary projects I don't see the value over simple fixed wing platforms. For close in inspection, a tri or quad can get the job done pretty easily.

Of course its all a function of how much you have to spend, I would love an RMAX.

@Chris, if I point the nose down I can land in a very small space ;-)

Comment by Krzysztof Bosak on April 14, 2010 at 4:50am

@Gary:
"Chris, if I point the nose down I can land in a very small space ;-) "
but only once!

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