Hi, my name is Justas, i am from Lithuania (a small country near Baltic sea), i am 19 years old, i am studying Informatics in Mykolas Romeris university. So, after a few years of flying in flight simulators i decided that i need to go to something more serious, and i found myself in RC. I have been flying with helicopters, gliders and planes. I never had one, so i decided to make one by myself. I could buy it, but for me, building something is even more interesting than using it! I didn't need long to decide what should it look like, for sure it's predator! I decided it because i am in Lithuanian volunteers army (not professional army, more for young people who associate their future with military), so it took my eye from first shot.Firstly it should be controlled manually (because of lack of money, hard time for non working student...), and in a few months after that it should be upgraded with ArduPilot, CoPilot and GPS to become a real UAV!For a while i am not going to annoy you with questions about ArduPilot, CoPilot and GPS (i'm a newbie in that).The first thing i am going to do is to build the main Predator, it's wingspan should be about 160cm or less. (what i want is to be enough to cary about 1kg, it would be a high resolution photo camera and a video camera).After long searches all i found that could be useful was this (didn't found a good quality scheme with V tail up):
So what i need is help from people who already did this, i'd have some questions like:1. What the material should be?2. What about measurements?3. What about wings construction?4. How to attach wings?Ant i would be wery hapy if someone who did this could share theyr experience, any photos and sketches(most important to me).I'm not very good sketcher, but i tried to show the construction of the main body that i'm thinking about, what do you think about that(just a sample, form isn't very similar to predators):
Impatiently waiting for any help! Thanks and see you soon ;)
I liked UAVs that Jonas showed in his foto, Manta , so trying to make some plans, sketches, it has challenging construction (trying to make it look as much similar as i can), stucked in place where wings connects to the main body, because body goes thinner... i think i'l need to use fibreglass , using wooden frame made similar to these that i mentioned about using for predator :) what do you think? =]
The point people are trying to make is that you are attracted to the aesthetics of the big bad Preadtor, and not focusing on handling, payload, easy of construction and maintenance, etc.
Yes, the ideal UAV, esp for video, is a pusher config, but a twin boom allows you to mount an engine more easily than you would in a Predator, since a long extension is required as the motor cannot be mounted in the rear without seriously complicating the CG.
The general advice is look for an easier airframe, especially during developement of the electronics.
I had an RC predator from www.lindinger.at, it's 1600mm wingspan it's light, well done but very nervous model!!!
Forget 1kg of payload with this plane, my multiplex Easy Cub (1600mm wingspan) can lift with 500gr of payload..
one of the main things why i have chosen predator is that i don't want a simple plane made in a few days or a week, i'm interested in that long and hard work ;)
and Sgt Ric, Chris's GeoCrawler UAV is only the bought UAV from Nitro models with lots of modifications, what i want is to build it by myself. So i need help from somebody who did that, but thank you guys!
By the way, i tried to make some identical sketches of Manta (from photo in Jonas post) but it's construction is a bit hard to make (in place where wings connects to the body), still searchin something for the reaper... :(
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Yes, the ideal UAV, esp for video, is a pusher config, but a twin boom allows you to mount an engine more easily than you would in a Predator, since a long extension is required as the motor cannot be mounted in the rear without seriously complicating the CG.
The general advice is look for an easier airframe, especially during developement of the electronics.
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/04/21/325437/pictures-gen...
I had an RC predator from www.lindinger.at, it's 1600mm wingspan it's light, well done but very nervous model!!!
Forget 1kg of payload with this plane, my multiplex Easy Cub (1600mm wingspan) can lift with 500gr of payload..
and Sgt Ric, Chris's GeoCrawler UAV is only the bought UAV from Nitro models with lots of modifications, what i want is to build it by myself. So i need help from somebody who did that, but thank you guys!
By the way, i tried to make some identical sketches of Manta (from photo in Jonas post) but it's construction is a bit hard to make (in place where wings connects to the body), still searchin something for the reaper... :(
There are many 3 view drawings on this site of the Predator and a few build threads, the most documented of which is of Chris's GeoCrawler UAV.
Even Chris is quick to point out it is not the best for a UAV airframe for our uses.
Hello Justas,if your going to built a plane why don't you build someting that is somewhat simpler?
like these plane's.
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