Hi guys (are there any ladies here?)For some time I have been fantasizing about building a UAV and wondering what you could do with it, and if you can make any money from it!My fantasy project would be a fixed wing UAV designed to have a large enough payload to allow researchers to put all manner of sensors in it and then fly autonomously on whatever missions are thought up. I will say at this point that I'm not really interested in military applications just civil ones. I can think of lots of environmental information that could be collected by a low'ish cost UAV.My area of expertise (if I have any!) is rapid protoyping CAD design and new product development...So I was wondering if it would be possible to design a UAV for complete manufacture using digital print rapid prototyping. This would allow parts to be printed directly with no tooling, great if you accidently smash something up or perhaps you just want to try a different wing design or payload configuration.....The materials available would mean that the internal structure of the wing design would be something quite different...perhaps a combination of honeycombe leading and trailing edges and internal structural spars on large x sectional areas. The method of manufacture means that complicated structures and features can be produced simultaneously to reduce weight and add value to the parts.I would imagine that the most suitable airframe to produce using this technology would be some kind of blended wing design, having a wingspan of 2-3 metres. I would envisage a catpault launch for take off and large flaps to allow for a slow controlled landing.... ( is that a crash?)I am really interested in the possibility of using a hydrogen PEM fuel cell ( there is a local company here that makes something which could be suitable) this would allow for inflight re-charging of the battery pack(s) These parts could be embedded in the design of the airframe to maximise the payload area.I like the idea of having two ducted fans mounted on the top of the blended wing to keep them out of harms way and reduce any noise transfer to the ground..I suppose you would also want some kind of wide angle forward looking video camera as a standard fitment.The type of missions I envisage it flying are slow and stable 1-3 hours duration, the design would initially be optimised for camera work. Because of the flexibility of the manufacturing process the design can be very fluid so it would be relatively simple to tailor the design to different scenarios.The flight control software and hardware would all be off the shelf items to reduce time to market.I could imagine selling a complete functional UAV tailored to different customer requirements and then selling a yearly service contract that would include software and hardware updates...what price would it be? who knows....is there a demand ? how big is the market? what would the civillian applications be? these are some of the millions of unanswered questions I have let alone the legal implications of selling a UAV. Hey I said it was a fantasy...perhaps it could happen..Perhaps........Oliver
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Sounds very cool. Obviously you've got to walk before you run. Have you considered just starting with a CNC-cut foam RC plane and then expanding from that?
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