Completion of the MTP II

This week I completed the MTP or Modular Testing Platform II.

For electronics, I added the elevator and aileron servos and mounted the motor, esc, and receiver to the airplane without any trouble. (see links below for which one's I used)

I also completed my Clark Y airfoil, which was much more difficult and time consuming than my prior K2 airfoil, however I anticipate an improvement in performance. As I used Bluecore (aka Fan Fold Foam, Extruded Polystyrene) for the entire build, I noted that the difficulty in curving the top section over the front of the airframe was very difficult, to the point of almost snapping the foam and led to an close, but imperfect airfoil. I'll have to use more flexible foams in the future or discover an effective way to curve Bluecor.

I did indirectly add some angle of incidence on the wing, which as far as I know, will slow the airplane a little and add some natural lift effect.The new motor is heavier, but over 3 times more powerful, giving this a 1:1 thrust ratio.

Next week: the Maiden flight of the MTP II! I'm actually pretty nervous to fly it, the MTP II took almost twice as long to create as the first MTP, and has quite a few new properties I've never tried before.

Any last minute words of wisdom?

Parts List:

Servos: http://www.hobbypartz.com/topromisesg9.html

Motor: http://www.hobbypartz.com/75m55-optima450-2220-1800kv-2.html

ESC: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=13429

Prop: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=5437

Battery: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=6306

Control Horns: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=8420

Y-Harness: http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXSGN3

Clevis's: http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXK081

CA Foam Safe Glue: http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXKAV8

Will it take constant control action (you and the ailerons) to keep the wings level? Even with an autopilot, it might be good to have some dihedral if only out at the wingtips. The advantage would be that to complete a turn, you just return controls to neutral (easy to control). Without dihedral or some self righting control, you'll need control input to level wings again after a turn, and it might add to pilot load (you figuring out which way the plane is going and properly controlling it). But hey, Wright brothers had no dihedral, right? And that wasn't wrong. It should work the way you've got it. ;>)

You could easily add a rudder servo, and just choose which do you plug into receiver, so can fly it either as 3ch with aileron, or 3ch with rudder. try it both ways and see which you like.

Have fun!

How'd you hot glue the whole span of wing at once, inside to the ribs?

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Comments

Trent at MyGeekShow July 28, 2011 at 6:13pm

Dale: Instead of using hot glue, I used CA Foam Safe super glue...

Matthew: Yeah, the prop was on backwards : ( Easy to fix though! Good catch!
Matthew Tang July 18, 2011 at 3:28pm

Not sure, it is hard to see, but it looks like the properer is on backwards.
Moderator

Mark Harrison July 18, 2011 at 2:14pm

As part of your learning process, you might consider building a Blu Baby... it's cheap and easy to build and will be a nice trainer for you as you work on successive MTP models. Search on youtube and you can see some examples of how it flies. Good Luck!
Dale July 18, 2011 at 8:53am

Will it take constant control action (you and the ailerons) to keep the wings level? Even with an autopilot, it might be good to have some dihedral if only out at the wingtips. The advantage would be that to complete a turn, you just return controls to neutral (easy to control). Without dihedral or some self righting control, you'll need control input to level wings again after a turn, and it might add to pilot load (you figuring out which way the plane is going and properly controlling it). But hey, Wright brothers had no dihedral, right? And that wasn't wrong. It should work the way you've got it. ;>)

You could easily add a rudder servo, and just choose which do you plug into receiver, so can fly it either as 3ch with aileron, or 3ch with rudder. try it both ways and see which you like.

Have fun!

How'd you hot glue the whole span of wing at once, inside to the ribs?

This reply was deleted.