Hello everybody. I'm a french bloke living in japan indirectly involved in medical/healthcare.The country as you might know go throught some regular violent weather and common sense is in quite short supply. For example... blood banks are sometimes far from hospitals.During last typhoon there was a huge need for blood for a patient hemorraging badly. The blood took 6 hours to make a 30 minute trip.Are there some RC airframe that could more or less operate during heavy storms ? The need is to be able to carry few blood bags and necessary coolant.The airframe don't need to be reusable, crash landing would be ok as long as the cargo can be protected enough. Short takeoff/jato/catapult would be good.I was thinking aboot:a more ballistic flight than fro usual UAV as subtlelty don't work well during storms.a swarm approach to be mandatory (launch 5 recover 1 or 2).final homing signal would be provided by the site expecting the delivery but coverage can't be expected since takeoff, area around the hospital is dead flat but blood bank is in more mountainous place.On the bright side, airspace is totally empty during expected use time. Since if it was possible to fly anything with humans inside, an helicopter would be dispatched instead.Thanks for any suggestion/idea/or else.
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Hmmm. Thinking fast fast fast, maybe with parachute landing? Some ideas from a total newcomer to the sport:
- there must be designs that can fly 200+ km/hr on gas engines. Big engine with fast prop.
- high speed takeoff boost by model rocket engines from a short launch rail?
- GPS guidance, IMU / gyro stabilized to cope with wind turbulence.
- flight need not be pretty or very stable, just consistently towards target.
- plane could fly upwind past the target, deploy a small recovery parachute, cut engine, drop onto target.
- GPS speed vs. measured air speed would tell the wind speed.
- carefully calculate total weight vs. parachute descent rate vs. altitude vs. wind speed & direction
- deploy small parachute and cut engine when sudden drop in airspeed is detected.
- open source autopilot should be able to do those calculations easily with small amount of custom code.
- only one waypoint to store.
- some way to release parachute (and wings?) when plane hits the ground would prevent it from chasing off in the wind.
Another possible landing idea assuming very high wind speeds: fly just about to the target, descend, slow down, attempt to stall as close to ground as possible. Flying into wind should give very low speed over ground. In winds above stall speed, vertical descent is possible by matching wind speed.
Also, think soft storage. A tough waterproof kayak storage bag (top wraps up and closes), with light fluffy padding (air filled plastic packing bags?). Only risk I can imagine is impact trauma causing blood clotting. As long as the package is tough and padded, it's a liquid in plastic bags that you're trying to move, so breaking is less the issue than puncturing. Cloth can be very tough for its weight.
SPAD construction of wings and tail feathers would be cheap to replace, as are propellers. 3M brand VHB double sided tape (very high bond) can make for amazingly easy and quick wing building.
Replies
- there must be designs that can fly 200+ km/hr on gas engines. Big engine with fast prop.
- high speed takeoff boost by model rocket engines from a short launch rail?
- GPS guidance, IMU / gyro stabilized to cope with wind turbulence.
- flight need not be pretty or very stable, just consistently towards target.
- plane could fly upwind past the target, deploy a small recovery parachute, cut engine, drop onto target.
- GPS speed vs. measured air speed would tell the wind speed.
- carefully calculate total weight vs. parachute descent rate vs. altitude vs. wind speed & direction
- deploy small parachute and cut engine when sudden drop in airspeed is detected.
- open source autopilot should be able to do those calculations easily with small amount of custom code.
- only one waypoint to store.
- some way to release parachute (and wings?) when plane hits the ground would prevent it from chasing off in the wind.
Another possible landing idea assuming very high wind speeds: fly just about to the target, descend, slow down, attempt to stall as close to ground as possible. Flying into wind should give very low speed over ground. In winds above stall speed, vertical descent is possible by matching wind speed.
Also, think soft storage. A tough waterproof kayak storage bag (top wraps up and closes), with light fluffy padding (air filled plastic packing bags?). Only risk I can imagine is impact trauma causing blood clotting. As long as the package is tough and padded, it's a liquid in plastic bags that you're trying to move, so breaking is less the issue than puncturing. Cloth can be very tough for its weight.
SPAD construction of wings and tail feathers would be cheap to replace, as are propellers. 3M brand VHB double sided tape (very high bond) can make for amazingly easy and quick wing building.
Otherwise it calls for serious public research, not RC guerilla tactics.