Mega-scale APM2 flying wings

Posted by Paul Hansel on April 25, 2012 at 4:14pm

I'm currently in the process of building an 8 foot wingspan flying wing to be used with ArduPilot, anybody have suggestions? DIY Drones seems to have no sections dedicated to flying wings.


Edit: That was pretty open-ended. I'm looking for info on what brushless motors have been used successfuly, and what kind of sensors I should get. (Pitot tubes, altimeters, IR sensors?). I'm also curious whether the purple APM2 still takes 4 weeks to ship (Would it be faster if I ordered the unsoldered version? I can solder.) , or if it is worth getting the old ArduPilot Mega. I've attached the rough plan, I'll put up the full plans in a couple days.

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Tags: ardupilot, flyingwings, info
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  • Moderator
    Graham Dyer May 19, 2012 at 4:58am

    I've had a fair bit of experience with flying wings, biggest was 2.6m (100in) span, here's some pics, have some video of it too somewhere:

    3692420948?profile=original

    3692421301?profile=originalLater cut it apart & converted it to zagi-style swept wing with 2 vertical stabs on the wing tips and retracts. It flew on ridiculously little power, I think it was about 400W with a 3S LiPo, motor was a Dualsky PR40 with a 13x6.5 prop and it flew easily on 50% throttle. Can't remember the weight but think it was about 3.5kg (7.7lbs).

    Normally planes need about 100W/kg (50W/lb) to fly, just watch that CG (I seem to recall the CG at +/-17% or less).

    This was before I got into autopilots (although I did fly an APM1 equipped wing this morning but it's not nearly as big)

  • Chad Colt May 15, 2012 at 10:15pm

    I have build a couple of 8 foot wings. Maby my experience can help.

    I do not have any build logs.  I just threw the wing together over a weekend. 

    I would be more than happy to answer any questions about the building process.

     

    here is flying video of before AMP install(these videos were taken durring initial testing). It took me about 3 flights to get the PID's tweeked,  Other than minor pid tweeking,  AMP is handling the larger airframe GREAT!!!

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0axE_ZKQAuM&feature=bf_prev&...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWvnRF0__IU&feature=channel&...

     

    Motor is eflight 160.  Or a exceed monstorpower 160.. 

     ESC Castle 120 HV.

    Castle ubec HV 25 amp.

    Servos s9156 futaba.

    10000 mah 10-12s. or 5000 mah 10-12s

    This set up provides PLENTY of power.  and gives me a solid 30 mins of flight.

     

     

     

  • kolin May 5, 2012 at 12:44pm

    Hi

    I'm already building one based on same idea as yours. My center section is built from CNC plywood, wings are MaxiSwift. I'm only few hours of work before maiden.3692412249?profile=originalFrom what I know, "empty" center section seem much more practical than solid foam for installation of electronics. When you cut too much, it's bad for rigidity. 

    It is 1.6m wingspan, powered by 6S 2.2Ah and 560kV outrunner.

    Whole gallery here

    https://picasaweb.google.com/m.kolinsky/UltraMaxiSwiftUAV#

    Very similar design is already flying in austria.

    I will post CAD files after maiden

  • Jake Bailey April 25, 2012 at 5:37pm

    What sort of response are you looking for? Are you looking for tips on designing the plane, or on usage of APM? Maybe the electronic paraphernalia required, or which construction method to use? My point is that yours is a very open ended question, and that you might get a faster response if you specified what you're looking for. 

  • Jay Bryon April 25, 2012 at 5:24pm

    I'm also building a variant of a "mothership" flying wing drone.  This got put on hold for a few years while I remodeled my house, so I'm needing to get back to it.  And all my parts are probably out of date, so not much help if you're sourcing parts now.  I'm planning on building a center section for it via 3D printing, but I haven't started that process quite yet (need to build my chops on CAD).  I got the original ardupilot for it, but now will punt that to another robot or drone and use the APM2 for my Dronewing.  

  • BR928 April 25, 2012 at 4:37pm

    Curious as to why you want one that large? Seems like the RiteWing Zepher II is plenty big w/ a 56" wing span. http://www.ritewingrc.com/buy-cores/wing-cores/

    He has already done all the R & D. Very stable platform.

  • AKRCGUY April 25, 2012 at 4:17pm

    Are you building from scratch or are you using something like the X-8 Wing?

     

    http://diydrones.com/photo/album/show?id=705844%3AAlbum%3A738456

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