Possible Composite X8

Posted by Michael Levesque on August 18, 2013 at 8:21am 
Hey guys! (and girls) I noticed a lot of people do love their X8 but they are pimping them quite a lot... Most of the time going above the max weight of the aircraft or going faster creating flutter. A composite airframe would help a lot in stiffening the desing and pushing the enveloppe.  

 If I was to produce a composite airframe from an X8 completly in fiberglass, would there be interest from members in this forum? I do not know how much it would cost so far. Just a ''yeah I would like one"" Just click the Like button. 

 thanks for your replies! I will look into it shortly.

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Tags: coposite, x8, airframe, flutter, possible, question, skywalker
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  • Tommy Larsen February 26, 2017 at 1:59am

    I got them here :)

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/ndnvk7ghh1c5vx4/UAV%20Deliverables.zip?dl=0



    Richard Sterling said:

    Does anyone know where I can find a 3D model of the X8?

    Thanks in advance,

    RS

    UAV Deliverables.zip
    Shared with Dropbox
  • Sebastian Arenas February 25, 2017 at 3:28pm

    I'd love to see pics of ur models. I was looking at an X8, but see that it has many options for design improvements, such as a wider fuselage, intake jets for engine cooling and other things

    Ronald Pandolfi said:

    There are several composite blended wings available including fiberglass and carbon fiber.  One is now in service in Africa supporting counter poaching missions.  Optimized composite blended wings have a somewhat different shape as compared with an X-8 because they achieve stiffening through a different process.  There also are a few 3-D printed blended wings that look nearly identical to an X-8. For a hobbyist, I would recommend the 3-D printing approach rather than fiberglass or carbon fiber layout.  If you design a good aircraft (Blender, Solid Works, etc.), I would be glad to assist in printing with aircraft grade glass filled nylon or carbon filled nylon.  Better yet, form a team and participate in the Wildlife Conservation UAV Challenge.

  • Richard Sterling December 5, 2016 at 12:53pm

    Does anyone know where I can find a 3D model of the X8?

    Thanks in advance,

    RS

  • Andrew Rabbitt October 29, 2014 at 6:10pm

    I've been working on a wing design that's quasi-Skyfun size (1000mm span) but I keep running into MTOW/payload issues with the equipment I want to have on board.  I'm beginning to think I need to scale it up to achieve my goals.  Currently I want to have a ~10m/s stall at 1.2kg.  If I were to scale it to 1600mm, that would give me about 2.5kg total, 1.0kg airframe.

    I plan to mould it from composite in aluminium moulds, including embedding the telemetry and FPV tx's in each wingtip during layup/moulding.  Question is, what sort of kit does everyone want to carry about?  My list is currently a forward looking camera, an ortho camera, telemetry (915MHz), FPV Tx (undecided) and enough power to cruise (15-18m/s) for 30mins or so, minimum.

    Anyway, it looks a lot like this right now:

    3701863032?profile=originalThoughts?

    • Will Richter > Andrew Rabbitt August 27, 2015 at 3:52pm

      What ever happened to this project?  This idea of a quality X8-like flying wing would be awesome.

      I think scaling to 1600mm would be desirable in the interest of more gear payload and flight time.

      I'm only starting out, but 4s is a great price point in terms of value and performance.

      You can get a pair of 2650mAH 4S nanotechs for about $50, an overspec'ed dlux 100A ESC for about $35, and a pylon racing motor for $30.

      I hope to take some great vids in some great hilly scenery.  A 1600mm span platform would be ideal.

      I do have a general wish (Kickstarter suggestion) for a camera system.

       I see some of these jimmy-rigged FPV setups and they sometimes look absolutely ridiculous and un-aerodynamic; they have a GoPro mounted on top of the plane and an FPV cam stacked on top of it.  Secondly, even the ubiquitous Fatsharks don't seem worth sinking money into anytime some (at least from what I can understand from the specs); the typical goggle FOV is 30 degrees?!  Surely this is not as bad as it seems, but it appears this would look like peeking through a keyhole.  Can someone please work on a system that uses something more like the Oculus Rift; these cost about $350 and are probably infinitely better quality (possibly even with depth perception?) and have an FOV of greater than 100 degrees.

      See http://i.imgur.com/IcOTeCy.png  from https://vrwiki.wikispaces.com/Oculus+Rift

      I really like that you have an inlaid camera as part of the design.  The camera should probably have an FOV more like   100 to 150 degrees, with a smooth adjustable gimbal of +/- 25 degrees.  The OSD should have markings that allow the user to keep clear orientation of front-ahead zone: perhaps an outlined area in the plane's front deadcenter of about 90 degrees FOV, even when you are tilt panning.  When you are turning, the camera ideally tilts automatically by a proportionate amount (or some algorithm that takes into account any manual panning movement).  At all times,  the 90 degree window outline gives appropriate orientation to the FOV viewer, (which might be slightly clipped in the resulting view).

      Also it would be kind of nice if the camera could transmit a lower res version to the video transmit system, and record the high-res version itself, with OSD information on a separate channel (I have no idea if it already can do this).  An alternative implementation to the panning with gimbals would be a static camera with a wide FOV (perhaps 160 degrees) and virtual panning...  This would give an optically imperfect result for virtual panning (including virtual panning for edited clips), but it would provide smoother panning than mechanical panning, as smooth panning is almost impossible over RC.  The camera stores a high quality, high FOV picture on the plane, but transmits a lower res version.

      An additional advantage is that a software solution would be cheap to replicate, the power of an Intel Edison to run the code is ample and fairly cheap. I would love to do this on my own if I had didn't have other priorities.  A project like this could be built upon to become a sophisticated modular flight control system, much more capable than what we currently can do with an Arduino brain.  More real-time interaction features.

      Is that really so much to ask?  For the most part that should all be well within the extraneous technology limits.  Somebody wants to take that to Kickstarter?

      High quality video FPV system for $1000, including an Oculus Rift level goggle.  With stunning quality, flying FPV would be even more exciting than what $150,000 would be with a real plane, and with better footage (except with FAA restrictions).  Add perhaps another $400 for the high-quality frame.  Designed here and produced in China.  Video system of course will be a reusable, upgradable investment, so worth it.

      Anybody want to be a semiprofessional National Geographer videographer during vacations (in remote lands without our beyond-communist FAA regulations, which is partly due to our unfortunate foreign policy imbalances)?

    • Ahmed Rehan > Andrew Rabbitt October 30, 2014 at 11:39am
      I have done a 2M wing with composite and non composite versions will start producing them shortly.
    • Gabriel > Ahmed Rehan May 25, 2015 at 4:32pm

      any links or updates?

    • Alex Maltais > Gabriel July 28, 2015 at 10:15am

      Up, any links or updates?

      Thanks

  • Ronald Pandolfi October 28, 2014 at 5:26pm

    Great List of suggested upgrades!  Although I too like and continue to enjoy the X8, it is not perfect nor is it well suited for composites.  At Kashmir World Foundation we have created a much improved blended wing body aircraft that includes all your suggestions and more.  Best of all, it is an open source project. To access the project, you must sign up with Kashmir World Foundation.  Currently CAD is in Rhinoceros 5 and Fusion 360. Neither is open source, but you can get free use of Fusion 360 via Kashmir World Foundation at www.kashmirworldfoundation.org

    • Richard Sterling > Ronald Pandolfi May 2, 2015 at 12:23pm

      @Ronald: are those CAD files still available? I had a look on the website but couldn't find them, may not be looking in the right place?

      Cheers,

      Richard

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