In order to help us get organized. I think a proper road map should be laid down.
So this is the general idea. A full blown gimbal with continuous 360 deg rotation on two axis. It should be able to fit something like a sony block camera.
I have already done a lot of work on the gimbal. The idea is to use the brushless gimbal technology but with absolute encoders instead and slip rings so continuous rotation can be achieved.
Once the gimbal is nailed down, It will need to be fitted to the nose. the fuselage exterior can then be fleshed out to wrap around everything in a nice aerodynamically slick package.
The 2.0 version I think should be done in composite. Mostly using kevlar as apposed to CF for RF considerations.
New wings:
Flexible wings are the future. They are upsetting to behold for most engineers and passengers but their is huge advantages to utilizing the technology. For a nice solid explanation of why,you can read this. It is a big reason for the techpods success. But there are drawbacks. one being public perception, the second being highly destructive wing oscillations at higher speeds. This can be overcome with the proper understanding of the wing oscillation phenomenon and proper simulation.
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nice links,
the openfoam aeroservalic solver is something to pay attention and test it
as foresigth point i would mark:
- composite wings!!!!, kevlar cannot replace carbon, i do not know how long interfere with rf, but in some models like the follow examples, rf signal can work very well. i think d-box construction must to follow:
http://www.espritmodel.com/explanation-of-the-d-box-build-technolog...
http://www.hyperflight.co.uk/products.asp?code=SNIPE
recently i knowed thar 'red' carbon fiber cloth is avaivable too, i do not know the characteristics
- variable profile!!!! as commented before
- foldable wings: to test it
https://www.google.com.ar/search?q=foldable+wing+uav
here is a nice layup using mostly kevlar.
http://www.matsclub.org/projects_suprakuda.html
Good discusion start points!! Give me a little i also want to add
here are some case examples in openfoam
i do not totally agree with that article.
i think composite wings is a very good foresigh point but flexibility is another thing. in fai f1a competition composite wings are used from twenty years ago, we really want very rigid wings (from torsional efforts point of view) that are capable of support 15-20 g of gravitational forces without flutter. of course it flex with load but it are realy rigid wings.
i think aerolastic calculation or behavoir is need as function of payload weigth and supported loads (envelope shungins) desires.
another point of develop is variable airfoils: some flapped airfoils have start to appears that could be near simmetric in rise actitude but very curved in glide path.
- http://static.rcgroups.net/forums/attachments/1/3/6/0/5/8/a5601420-...
- http://static.rcgroups.net/forums/attachments/1/3/6/0/5/8/a5601421-...
this is a great explanation of many aeroelastic phenomena. I think the basic point to understand is that it is an interaction between the structure and the aerodynamic forces around the structure. In other words, there are two ways to solve the problem. You can make the structure less elastic or you can make the aerodynamic forces work with the elasticity.
The D fuselage test is a perfect example. a D shaped fuselage produces oscillating vortexes this produces forces on the fuselage which cause it to oscillate. You can solve the problem by making things stiffer but in the end "stiffness" only attenuates the problem. in other words you can never get to 0 by dividing by 2. a much faster way is x-x.
wing oscillation is a very complex interaction between the air and the mechanical properties of the wing. longitudinal wing stiffness actually has nothing to do with it neither does g loading.
torsional stiffness has much more to do with the casually observed longitudinal wing flex.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mbIRXnCSts
this is an example of a perfectly stiff wing undergoing intense and very dangerous oscillations.
If I am not pushing you out of your comfort zone I am not doing my job. There is a aeroservalic solver out there for openFoam 1.5. I have seen it but have had problems finding it in the last few days.
"variable" airfoils are defiantly something to consider.
I was looking at the gimball setup a while back and came across the lockheed martin's gimballs for low cost aircraft - BTC series. one thing I noticed though is that the overall camera quality was poor due to alot of the total space being taken up by the complex mechanism that gets the gimball working.
I saw this 360 degree camera that sparked my interest: http://www.geonaute.com/?___store=en&___from_store=fr
what do you think?