Congrats to the XCraft team, who after two successful Kickstarter projects (the PhoneDrone and the Pixhawk-powered VTOL XPlusOne), raised $1.5m at a $6m valuation from all five judges on Shark Tank.
But why wait for that to come out? Thanks to Gary Mortimer, you can build your own now!
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For some reason google coughed up a hidden unlisted youtube video of a Jumpship test flight in july
JumpShip test flight July 2015
I don't think that tilt state is due to weight inbalance of the larger lower pod, but fighting off a headwind?
I suspect they modified this https://github.com/menno-h/ardupilot, I see the VertiKUL chaps have moved onto a new design. One that makes more sense on a windy day. http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/vertikul-2-our-second-generatio... they are members here BTW
The new idea is flipping obvious actually........ Like most good ideas simple.
I liked the VertiKUL so much I have abandoned what I started doing and am going to make one of those! It just makes soooo much sense. Not the best of either world but neither are tail sitters.
I know the Shark Tank people probably aren't too up on the drone market but I was shocked that they all jumped in, when there are soooooo many drone companies and 90% of them are going to have to fail to make the remaining 10% profitable. Xplus One seems like a reasonable design but I don't see it as revolutionary or significantly better than their competitors that have been in the market much longer. The valuation they got considering all they have done is run a Kickstarter and I don't think delivered anything yet seems highly suspect.
Thanks for the link Paul. I've seen that one though, and am worried it's too limited. Really want to see what the X Plusone guys cooked up.
I think the pixhawk people have also code for tailsitters
https://pixhawk.org/platforms/vtol/quadrotor_tailsitter_vtol
It sounds like they have working tailsitter code for Pixhawk, which I am very interested in. Gary's article said it was public. Does anyone have the link?
Congrats to them. I have seen some recent power tech that may make these VTOL airplanes feasible. Exciting times!
To the hobbyist, there is little benefit to these hybrid quad/fixed wing machines. Cannot get pictures in loiter of the ground, and I suspect that the loiter performance (with the huge side profile) will be poor in the wind. The Firefly6, while more complicated, is superior in function.
This application is better suited for commercial applications where flight time and range are of greater concern.
Plus, this thing is expensive!!
Wow, Jumpship needs it's own post. I-wing to reduce virtual cross sectional profile and moment arms in hover to reduce getting slapped around by the wind is an interesting trick, but how much weight distribution is there? Will there be some batteries going into the motor pods, or will they all be concentrated as a flat pack of batteries in the vertical spar? Is the faired lower body intended for bulbous forward camera turret payloads, and perhaps a smaller camera turret in the upper body for FPV?
Andrew, that my thought exactly. With easy access to autopilots and stabilization in the DIY community, it seems every crazy idea from the golden age of airplanes is being re-invented. Some of them may make more sense now with the addition of electronics, but most where abandoned for a reason.
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