Well finally its nearly ready to fly Just waiting for the wind to drop for a test flight.Its a modular thing, with stacks of room for gear in the front a work in progress of course. Hopefully of course it will provide a steady platform for an Attopilot which should be released from its shackles before too long. Dean has another one of the smaller ones which he should be test flying, thats Airframe 2. Airframe 1 is being flown to bits in order to see how well the EPP performs after lots of UV on it. Hopefully in the end we will have a useful platform at FlyingScotsCam for doing the work of the Twinstar and flying wing.
Oh yes covering, there is some glass fibre reinforced tape on 1 on the underside.
Might yet be that we cover this in Oracote for UV protection, that said the first small one is going well having done 65 hours, if it gets to 100 I will consider it retired.
In the long run I think it will be easier to replace the airframe every 100 flying rather than add too much weight for UV protection.
But unless its exposed to the sun for 100 hours I will never know, hence the testing. I also wonder how well UHUpor will last in the sun.
Airframe 1 will be used for mapping jobs, its a chuck on the back seat of a car tool type thing. Not an object of beauty, but a thing for work!
Yes Brian I have access to a hot wire rig its Roberts ;-) and he is the brains behind it all really.
There are carbon spars, in the wings,through the tail as well also stiffeners on the tail surfaces as noticed.
It does look like a Raven but much like an Easystar on steriods as well!! Its sort of a natural shape when you start trying to tick the boxes we need.
I'm going more for the aerial photography route as thats what it will be use for. To that end the nose section is independant of the wings and tail, if you follow my meaning. You can take that block and put it on the bench and fiddle with whatever you've put in there. Or have a different camera or sensor fit and put that on instead. No RC gear or batteries to have to work around.
Must admit I am a little worried about the batteries being up high and stability, but then thats what autopilots are for ;-)
Its still blowing hard so its unflown.
There are lots of tweaks to make and decisions on how we will attach things no doubt we will break it lots soon!!
Nice Job!! I assume you have access to a hot wire rig? Are there carbon fiber spars to stiffen the tail boom and wings or is it solid EPP.
I need to make/acquire one of these. It's looks like it would be a really good low cost UAV test platform. Have you thought about packing tape to stiffen things up and offer some UV protection? I'm sure you have, it would add a fair amount of weight I guess.
Comments
Will add video soon, once its edited.
Might yet be that we cover this in Oracote for UV protection, that said the first small one is going well having done 65 hours, if it gets to 100 I will consider it retired.
In the long run I think it will be easier to replace the airframe every 100 flying rather than add too much weight for UV protection.
But unless its exposed to the sun for 100 hours I will never know, hence the testing. I also wonder how well UHUpor will last in the sun.
Airframe 1 will be used for mapping jobs, its a chuck on the back seat of a car tool type thing. Not an object of beauty, but a thing for work!
First thankyou all for your kind comments.
Yes Brian I have access to a hot wire rig its Roberts ;-) and he is the brains behind it all really.
There are carbon spars, in the wings,through the tail as well also stiffeners on the tail surfaces as noticed.
It does look like a Raven but much like an Easystar on steriods as well!! Its sort of a natural shape when you start trying to tick the boxes we need.
I'm going more for the aerial photography route as thats what it will be use for. To that end the nose section is independant of the wings and tail, if you follow my meaning. You can take that block and put it on the bench and fiddle with whatever you've put in there. Or have a different camera or sensor fit and put that on instead. No RC gear or batteries to have to work around.
Must admit I am a little worried about the batteries being up high and stability, but then thats what autopilots are for ;-)
Its still blowing hard so its unflown.
There are lots of tweaks to make and decisions on how we will attach things no doubt we will break it lots soon!!
A twit here http://twitter.com/Airframe1
And I post the odd detail here as well http://www.attopilot.ning.com
I shall add more here in the future and next time we will take more pictures, promise!
Very much resembling the Raven.
I need to make/acquire one of these. It's looks like it would be a really good low cost UAV test platform. Have you thought about packing tape to stiffen things up and offer some UV protection? I'm sure you have, it would add a fair amount of weight I guess.
Brian