Maybe this will help with the visualization processRed = propellersBlue = Electric motorsYellow = Flight surfacesGold = Flight control surfacesLight Gray = Helium EnvelopeDark Gray = Cradle, Electronics houseing, and HullGreen = CamerasTop View
To lamely quote a James Bond movie, "I give you Icarus." The main body is 13 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 2 feet high. (not including flight control surfaces, propellers, and cameras). The overal shap is an elongated circle cylinder. The helium envelope provides a total lift of a feather over 3 pounds. I plan on this being somewhere near 85-95% of lift needed. The remaining being generated by the 4 verticle thrust propellers. They also provide more thrust than needed allowing for verticle flight. The 2 propellers on the wings are used more for flight control than speed, while the main propeller in the rear provides the main foward thrust. These 3 propellers can reverse their thrust for further control.
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HiWell, this post is about a pet project i've been cooking up in my head for the past few months, but have lacked the tech knowledge on how to go about it much more than a few diagrams on the computer and my own imagination. What i've been wanting to build is a hybrid of a semi-rigid blimp and helicopter, with a long length of flight time, good manueveribility, but with speed similar to a RC plane. My first idea was a blimp with their long flight times since very little power is needed to keep them airborn, but looking at the profiles of said types of crafts, their teardrop shape keeps them from attaining the speed i desired. I then thought of a craft with a lower profile so to attain speed, but when done, you lose lift from the loss of space for helium gas. To counter-act that problem, i devised adding 4 verticle lift propellers. Two in the front, and two in the back. This also helps solve the problem of keeping the craft on the ground when not desired to be airborn. Next, foward thrust. I figured on three engines, all reversible. One main prop in the rear and 2 auxillery on wings located halfway on the sides the craft. The wings are for flight control, in addition to other normal flight control surfaces found on planes. The flight electronics, batteries, coms systems will be located in the traditional gondola posistion. Lastly, i decided on giving my vehicle sight, with several cameras. One pointing verticly up, one foward, one behind, and on underneath that can pan and tilt, so it move to see 360 degrees around by 90 degrees up and down. Also, i was wanting the craft to have as long of a control-able range as possible, while being able to still fly and return, if reception is lost, on its own.What i need help with is the electronics. This is not a project i plan on finishing for a long time, but i just lack the knowledge to do this with out help. If anyone knows how i might proceed, please, comment and let me know.
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