I was wondering if there are any tips out there for making the drone last as long as possible in the air. I'm sure keeping the weight down is important, but might there be any words of wisdom on build a craft that can stay in the air for long periods of time?
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Wow, thanks for the really good feed back! I just learned about this drone project yesterday, and I am very impressed and inspired by what I see and read. Thanks again.
One tool to help you optimize your desighn is to purchace a licens for MoterCalc. I bought MoterCalc 8 for I think 35-40 us$. It is a very powerful tool and allows you to simulate a crude simulation of you airframe as well as pick moter/prop/battery combinations. It gives you a plane english evaluation of you design and prints charts that tell you every thing that can be known, like battery amps/volts, moter amps/volts (they are different),Air speed stall speed, endurance time, and more.Very useful tool. You should easily be able to go for 2 hours if endurance is your goal.
Think sailplane! You'll want everything to be very light and have very long wings (AR of 25-30). Do research on airfoils and find one that best matches the corresponding Reynolds number you are going to fly at. Also, make sure to power it correctly with high quality components that dont waste energy (ie nothing from hobbyking. Neu/ARC motors and Castle Creations ESCs are about the best you can get.). Most motors have thier highest efficiency at around 80% peak power, and you'll want that point to be at your ideal/design loiter speed.
There is also a large difference between distance covered and loiter time, since going faster and covering more ground might be worth a slight decrease to time in the air. After all you could always make a blimp if you wanted to stay in the air for really long periods.
Also, very large battery packs help. A Global Hawk can stay in the air for 30+hrs, but its take off gross weight is 54% fuel.
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There is also a large difference between distance covered and loiter time, since going faster and covering more ground might be worth a slight decrease to time in the air. After all you could always make a blimp if you wanted to stay in the air for really long periods.
Also, very large battery packs help. A Global Hawk can stay in the air for 30+hrs, but its take off gross weight is 54% fuel.
Prop/Motor combination