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 ;)
The project is not dead, i just had lots of stuff to do, i allso have joined the university, so it was no time for this... Now i have more free-time, so through the winter i'm going to build the main body and wings ant buy all electronic's i need ;) when i came back to this, i started wandering, whitch type of the body to choose... I love predator, allso when i'm closely connected to army, i love predator for that... :)
Jonas, go for it my friend. The predator should be a simple construction based on your initial structure works ups.
Body is mostly square except up front where it gets curvy. Wing is an easy build, if you know how to wire cut foam cores might be easier to core it, then balsa build up. One thing to know, I have 3 predators, they are very touchy, floaty and have the tendency to tip-stall. So be careful, its 1 part glider, 1 part T-28, so know that landings are long, takeoffs are short, and its very hard to put her down where you want - unless you add a speed break of flaps, which I did. Then she can be very forgiving on short field landings.
Looks like another dead project, but it would be nice to know how one would build a large hollow dome. Balsa only bends 1 way. Carving solid foam would take serious skill. Fiberglass needs a mold.
Thank you Wendi Smol, i came back to Predator, and allready making some sketches. Work goes a bit slowly because of the preparation for exams. But work goes on! In a few days i will post some plans for you to look and to say wat is bad or to add something.
Wendi, the tube which runs the length of the fuselage is just for a support, but i realized that its really not needed, and allso should add some unnecesary weight... so will the body be strong enough with such construction and wont crack apart?
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The Predator C Avenger looks wider, better wing loading, and more air worthy. I cant wait to see EDF versions of this amazing UAV.Body is mostly square except up front where it gets curvy. Wing is an easy build, if you know how to wire cut foam cores might be easier to core it, then balsa build up. One thing to know, I have 3 predators, they are very touchy, floaty and have the tendency to tip-stall. So be careful, its 1 part glider, 1 part T-28, so know that landings are long, takeoffs are short, and its very hard to put her down where you want - unless you add a speed break of flaps, which I did. Then she can be very forgiving on short field landings.
Wendi, the tube which runs the length of the fuselage is just for a support, but i realized that its really not needed, and allso should add some unnecesary weight... so will the body be strong enough with such construction and wont crack apart?
W.
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