Project date 2002-2006 Completed
Wing Span 12ft
Weight 60-80kg
Engines tested were : 342cc boxer, 500cc boxer, 298cc Wankel Rotary
Max speed achieved was 400kph level flight with 298cc Wankel rotary engine
Launcher also took lot of time to develop
Landing bally or parachute
Autopilot did with electro-mechanical gyro with gps and pressure sensor.
Above photo is of final version and videos are from early testing / developing versions.
Comments
Is your airship going to be man piloted or unmanned? You can launch easily both gas or electric UAV under gravity again the recovery has to by mean of net and anchor else you can design an open bay at the back of your air ship were the uav can enter to land and the railed again after recharging or refueling.
Your project is very interesting and will require lot of investment for proof of concept.
Good luck
Collins: What i feel you do not need a launcher for UAV to launch from air ship only a release mechanism will work good enough and u can gain good speed under gravity (free fall with bit of a nose down attitude). what altitude you r planing to release the drone from airship? for recovery you can use a net and anchor system which some of the UAVS uses.
Dead renocking is nearly impossible as Chuck said with both the crafts moving.
So you plan to launch drones out of the front of the air ship and recover them from the rear?
I think they did that in the 1930s with piloted planes. But it didn't pan out.
The launching is easy. The recovery is difficult at best if not nearly impossible.
If you mean trigger the launch sequence? Yes.
Wes Collins: Can you post the photo of your drone so that i can give you advise remote launching actuator can be added.
Avionics: GPS telemetry and also by measuring time from runway end to end.
I should have something to take pictures of in a month.
Chuck;
See my video for condor mini uav that launcher is according to your requirement it has only one bungee rope and is 14ft long fold-able. I also worked on pneumatic cylinders but the system is complex and u need power source to fill air cylinder . I used rod-less linear cylinders you will be needing about 10-12 feet cylinder with about 2.5-3 inch dia for 5-10 kilos of load you can add solenoid valve at exit of cylinder to control the shock proportional control is not required. But in the end the simple system is more durable and single bungee launcher uses a hand winch to load.
Bungee is not surgical tube i got the bungees specially made for the launcher they are made of very fine rubber strands covered by nylon braiding.
Yes initial shock is there you have to use aircraft made in composite and wing with good strength spar to resist initial shock.
My launcher uses the same bungee to stop shuttle so no shock abbsorbers at the end.
Also see the micro-pilot launcher video it seems to be very encouraging.
Thanks.
I'm trying something smaller. 8 foot long.
Powered by a reverse block and tackle system. The the sheaves would be forced apart using pneumatic cylinders. Slack would be taken out of the cable using a second set of cylinders. I hope to use a computer and proportional pneumatic solonoids to control both the initial shock and to back pressure the rams at the end of the run. Turning them into shock absorbers to stob the shuttle.
I hope to accelerate 5-10 kilos up to 20-25 mph in 8 feet with low shock.
I did a prototype, like you say, using rubber surgical tubing with a pulley system. And while it launched well it had a huge initial shock which would tear the wings off my larger planes. But you have the advantage of the length of your launcher. I do not have the ability to store or transport such a large launcher.
Thanks for your info
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