Ever heard of "Moment of Inertia"? Neither had I, but it's quite simple really.Object with the most of it's weight at the center of it's gravity is easier to rotate than one with the weight on the outer edges. So why put all the electronics and batteries in the center under the wing. By distributing the weight to the wings, should create a platform that has steadier flight characteristics.More on this and a few pictures in my personal UAV blog.
It's true that solid core an light weight wings are beneficial in some situations, but having all the expensive electronics and cameras etc. in the solid core might not be the best bet if you accidentally hit a tree and the wings separate and the fuselage ends up in a rock :)
Also in a traditional top wing model design having the camera and control electronics in the wings (not in the wing tips), might save them if the plane hits land nose first and the wings are designed to separate from the fuselage.
But all in all I think there's no right or wrong design. I personally almost totally destroyed my plane when trying to do a loop with too much speed and the wings snapped. The reason was that I had more weight (motor + batteries) on the fuselage than the model was designed for. If the weight had been distributed on the wings the wings could have survived. If modern passenger jets had the fuel on the core, treir wings would snap under the load too.
I think this is something that all UAV conversions should think about. You can make almost any heavy UAV camera plane conversion fly just by using a bigger brushless motor, but will the fuselage and wings survive the load when you try to manually recover from a coding bug induced steep dive...
bGatti, thank you for your tip on positioning the camera with weight - I makes alot of sense. I've been thinking all kinds of camera stabilisation solutions, but they usually add more weight.
While it's true that bulky objects should be placed behine one another on a streamlined fuselage rather than making the hole craft bulky, there's usually an option to use for example 4 smaller batteries in parallel than a one large pack that wouldn't fit in the wings.
Also many readily available control electronics (see my last post) tend to be square and flat, so their ideal place could be in the wings. My current development craft is a modified glider with big wings and a tight narrow body.
I also think that the servos won't be an issue in many situations. The craft I'm converting has always been a bit too agile (even before adding a motor), and I've had to restrict the control surface movements to counter my lack of skills :)
Comments
Also in a traditional top wing model design having the camera and control electronics in the wings (not in the wing tips), might save them if the plane hits land nose first and the wings are designed to separate from the fuselage.
But all in all I think there's no right or wrong design. I personally almost totally destroyed my plane when trying to do a loop with too much speed and the wings snapped. The reason was that I had more weight (motor + batteries) on the fuselage than the model was designed for. If the weight had been distributed on the wings the wings could have survived. If modern passenger jets had the fuel on the core, treir wings would snap under the load too.
I think this is something that all UAV conversions should think about. You can make almost any heavy UAV camera plane conversion fly just by using a bigger brushless motor, but will the fuselage and wings survive the load when you try to manually recover from a coding bug induced steep dive...
While it's true that bulky objects should be placed behine one another on a streamlined fuselage rather than making the hole craft bulky, there's usually an option to use for example 4 smaller batteries in parallel than a one large pack that wouldn't fit in the wings.
Also many readily available control electronics (see my last post) tend to be square and flat, so their ideal place could be in the wings. My current development craft is a modified glider with big wings and a tight narrow body.
I also think that the servos won't be an issue in many situations. The craft I'm converting has always been a bit too agile (even before adding a motor), and I've had to restrict the control surface movements to counter my lack of skills :)