This one should be easy if you have any of the current crop of Kickstarter VTOL airframes, of course I will award less points so you might not win.
The task is simple.... (not)
Auto take off
Autonomous hover for at least 1 minute after take off
Transition to winged flight and fly no higher than 120m
Then circle radius 80m for as long as you can. (This makes the circle 500m a turn)
This of course points to the current delivery drone mania. To get noticed by Amazon try for greater than 24km about the distance their machine can deliver (apparently)
We will make this a six month contest as its hard. On the plus side its building time in the Northern Hemisphere.
For extra points some sort of silly cargo that makes me smile. Super bonus points added for an autonomous vertical landing as well. (All landings to be vertical)
If you can make a multirotor fly that far then all well and good, but I will be looking for the least amount of power used in event of a draw.
The longest distance wins.
Good luck, I look forward to May 2nd 2016 and the fruit of your labors.
Glittering prizes TBA
Let the pointing out of my Swiss cheese thinking commence...
Comments
I have been struggling for a color scheme! Bucket of Chicken is on the list. Being from Fort Collins I was leaning towards can of microbrewery beer. But sadly I don't think the Flying Bucket would be a contender. And it's long since been cannabilized to support more crazy ideas. I am leaning towards a twin engine BBPlane with custom tail module that has stabilized skids. Will also need to move wings to vertical CG. Plenty of ideas; never enough time.
Not sure how we would be able to measure weather at points all around the world at random times. I know what you mean though Rob. Most VTOLS are hopeless in the wind. Will you be going for KFC deliveries Coby?
JB, about your super efficient glider, you know you're supposed to be delivering some payload right? If you have a super efficient solar powered VTOL glider that can also lift some reasonable payload (I'd think a pair of shoes should be the minimum) then bring it on! :)
I think there should also be some requirement for reasonable weather tolerance too. That's what separates the men from the boys in this field. ;)
Gary, I get no credit for having a Kickstarter and STILL freely sharing how we did it by making open source?
Just for that you will be subjected to the FLYING BUCKET OF DOOM...
VTOL for the win
Aha now the coin has dropped!
Thx for the link.
So we have no time limit then? This could be interesting as slowing the whole thing down with a glider type airframe, potentially with solar, and on a good thermal day to boot could produce some fantastic results. Lifting 3kg airframe only requires about 300g of gear on our VTOL config, just need to find the right airframe to attach it to to get the extra range.
Once I've achieved the hover time can I eject the quad? Or do I need to land VTOL too?
Hi JB, its online submissions like the ones that have gone before http://diydrones.com/notes/Contests
You don't need a kickstarter to enter, its my attempt at humour. It strikes me that ever idea these days has to be on kickstarter or its not real.
I hope people will develop their own airframes and freely share how they did it.
Lol that's funny :-)
So what's the time limit? Would be good to have a proper course instead of going around in circles though. Not really a spectator sport like that either. Also where will it be held or can we submit online flight logs with video proof for foreign entries? And finally does it really have to be a silly Kickstarter airframe? Geeez talk about making it hard! ;-)
@JB no its a real competition, it may or may not prove or disprove some of the claims for VTOL. The rules and how it is judged will be very flexible. In my mind I intended vertical landing, and so will amend the original post.
Andrew again, where is the Kickstarter for your concept!
I'm going to have a high-pressure pump to inflate and deflate a helium balloon for the V in my VTOL version* The inflation will drive a gas turbine to recover the energy needed for deflation and compression. I might supplement this by some free energy like what I saw on YouTube once...
*perhaps this was tongue-in-cheek - don't take it seriously, but feel free to comment and lambaste me for being stupid and ridiculous.
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