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.
i've thought about giving it a more finely shaped nose, but i'm not sure on whether rounded or having it come to a point, like the concord. My current shape gives me the ability to mount the foward camera how i like, but also, allows me to easily mount the verticle propellers. This is mostly the same with the tail section especialy, because i have lot of control surfaces i have to mount in the back and i figured maybe a more angular tail end would make it easier. The plans are not final drafts though. They have gone through several revisions and if some one can advise me on how i maybe be able to change the nose and tail while still being able to mount my hardware where i want, i'd be very excited to hear what they have to advise.
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