My twinboom test flight

So my drone project has been a slow process, I've got my Ardupilot mega, and it's doing everything it should do on the ground, but I'm yet to find an airframe I'm happy to fly it in, and because I like to do everything the hard way, I decided to build my plane 100% from scratch.

I've been toying with different frame designs, and decided to give a basic twin boom design a try, something I've never flown before. I decided to make version1 very basic, small, and RC only, just to get used to the flight characteristics.

The fuse and wing are standard Styrofoam, cut with a hot wire. The wing is reinforced with a small carbon fibre tube, and both are covered in monocote.

After a successful maiden flight I decided to strap my helmet cam to it and push the plane to it's limits, I obviously didn't push hard enough (apart from blowing up my motor at the end).

Motor has been removed in the photo.

Enjoy and try not to get sick watching ;)

Don't know if the embedding will work so heres the url http://vimeo.com/19422516

Some RC fun from Jon Keller on Vimeo.

I cut the wings by hand, just using a wooden template and some nicrome wire, but I'm about half way through making a cnc.

Dimentions are about 1.2m span by about .8m length. I didn't do much measuring when I made it.

Overall this one is pretty stable, I probably need to adjust the thrust line as it pitches up quite a lot when giving it full throttle. The thrust flowing directly over the elevator also makes it quite twitchy on the pitch control.

The monocote was applied the same way I've always done balsa planes, Just tack it in the corners and stretch it over, then iron it down. The iron doesn't get anywhere hot enough to melt the foam, I did however make the mistake of trying to tack it down with spray on adhesive, which ate right through some of the foam.

I really wanted to stress test it in the flight in the video, I'm going to make some adjustments and do another slower more stable flight this afternoon.

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Comments

Jon Keller February 2, 2011 at 11:13pm

Thats a good idea actually, although my transmitter is from the mid 90's ;) i doubt I can mix those together. Might be time for a new one.
SilverFox February 2, 2011 at 3:28pm

It looks like you did a great job building the Twinboom. I've always been a fan of that style of plane, so I have built a few of my own.

You can always mix in a little down elevator with throttle to help level things out during higher throttle settings. Just try it a few points at a time.
Jon Keller February 2, 2011 at 10:36am

I cut the wings by hand, just using a wooden template and some nicrome wire, but I'm about half way through making a cnc.

Dimentions are about 1.2m span by about .8m length. I didn't do much measuring when I made it.

Overall this one is pretty stable, I probably need to adjust the thrust line as it pitches up quite a lot when giving it full throttle. The thrust flowing directly over the elevator also makes it quite twitchy on the pitch control.

The monocote was applied the same way I've always done balsa planes, Just tack it in the corners and stretch it over, then iron it down. The iron doesn't get anywhere hot enough to melt the foam, I did however make the mistake of trying to tack it down with spray on adhesive, which ate right through some of the foam.

I really wanted to stress test it in the flight in the video, I'm going to make some adjustments and do another slower more stable flight this afternoon.
mahmood February 2, 2011 at 7:36am

how did you iron the monocote to the foam ?
Anthony Bee February 2, 2011 at 7:07am

The idea is slow, stable flight, so I can get nice video with a pan-tilt camera on the nose.
Anthony Bee February 2, 2011 at 7:06am

oh im also throwing a 10X5" tri-prop
Anthony Bee February 2, 2011 at 7:06am

WHat are the dementions?

I have designed, and buildinng my own original twin boom drone my self!

Mine will run a 1050kv turning engine with an 18A esc, playing with battery choices...

This thing is huge, about an 80" wingspan, and 40" in length.

I didnt know you could use monocote of faom, so i covered my wings with clear shipping tape!
Ritchie February 2, 2011 at 4:16am

Sweet I love scratch builds because it gives me confidence to do it (although I'm only dipping my toes so far). Looking good though, I agree no airframe lives up to my expectations even closely but I am happy with my EasyStar because when I'm unhappy my friendly model centre has the body as spares so its only a quid £ and I can start recutting everything so it doesn't look like a blind carpenter has hit it with a mallet.

I am particularly nervous about wings so would like to know if they are CNC hotwire or just your own diligence?

Oddly enough your wings are the same shape as what I would like but I'm unsure whether to use the first versions as moulds for CF wings instead as the body will be CF.

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