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.
Icarus is a decent sized craft, 13 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 2 feet tall, not including extearnal hardware The overall shape is that of an elongated oval cylinder. I figured out a rough lift capacity of a feather over 3 pounds. I plan to have the helium provide between 80-95% of the lift needed. The 4 verticle thrust propellers will be used to do the rest The 2 propellers on the wings are considerably smaller, used more for control than for thrust, while the main prop provides primary thrust. These 3 are able to reverse their thrust for further flight control.
if you're going for efficiency, fewer, larger rotors are better. But then the control will be harder.
Lots of engines will probably be inefficient and hard to control. Generally 1 large engine is lighter and more efficient than several small ones.
You should probably look at helicopter style control systems.
Got any diagrams? It's not clear by your description how this avoids having the worst of both worlds--slower than a plane and requiring power to stay aloft.
If all you want is a fast blimp that can handle winds, why not look at something like the hyperblimp.
Comments
Lots of engines will probably be inefficient and hard to control. Generally 1 large engine is lighter and more efficient than several small ones.
You should probably look at helicopter style control systems.
If all you want is a fast blimp that can handle winds, why not look at something like the hyperblimp.