Looking at the submissions, you will see a nice blend of concepts ranging from pure aircraft design to more user and application focused proposals. You can actually be a part of the selection process by going to the LM platform between June 6th and 16th to vote for your favorite concept!
Here a few of my favorite, non-derivative, original submissions:
Starting with a friendly, approachable, multi-purpose Cargo Drone, POD
look, it even has a pair of cute eyes!
This Crazy, most-probably-invalid-but-still-elegant, Design
Andromeda (disclaimer: totally not a spy drone!)
And finally Airbus Engineers' dream design :) it does remind me of a boring but functional chameleon!
I bet 50K, of my currency of choice, this last one or its equally German sibling is going to win the grand prize :) Let's see! It must have been a fun journey for all the participants and organizers.
P.S.: feel free to build a prototype of any of these designs or others on the challenge page, LM has a very community friendly license for this purpose as long as you don't use the designs commercially.
Comments
I'm not an expert airplane designer, but I know a thing or two, and I would think that a CG at that yellow tag is way too far aft. Normally it would be a bit behind the orange stripe on the wing. (near the thickest part of the wing)
I honestly don't see any way this layout is going to work. Why wouldn't you simply move the front lift motors well in front of the wing, as is typically done?
@Rob I agree with your point. The forklift idea actually came to us from another friend, but it seemed too inefficient. The current CG is somewhere around the yellow tag on top of the fuselage. One idea to help with CG in hover mode was to bring the front pair of motors forward and place them 10-15 cm under the wing. Knowing that batteries make the single heaviest piece of concentrated mass on the vehicle (6-8 kg), they should balance the weight of the wings and bring the CG a bit aft towards the center of 4 hover motors.
Another crazy idea was to move the cargo box internally forward as we transition to fixed wing flight.
Do you see any other solution that wouldn't completely scrap the whole design? :) I will forward it to the designer.
I'm extremely curious about how the CG on the P.O.D. is supposed to work out. The airplane mode would require the CG somewhere in the middle of the wing. I can't see how that will work out while in hover mode?
Maybe it operates like a forklift, with the front motors doing all the lifting, and the rear motors pushing down for balance?
I see some comments on the thread for that machine, but they don't clarify the issue.
-
1
-
2
-
3
of 3 Next