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VTOL Anaconda built for Tyler Perry

I built this VTOL Anaconda for Tyler Perry and the new TV Series, DRONED, which will air on July 22 at 6:00pm on the Science Channel.   

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This plane was built from a Ready Made RC Anaconda.  This model has both front and rear flaps, which helped a lot when transitioning from hover to forward flight.  

The VTOL uses a Pixhawk with Arduplane 3.6.   The motor booms are carbon fiber and attach to the the existing twin booms using 3D Printed, Carbon/Epoxy reinforced parts.   

The vertical motors are T-Motor 3510 700kv with T-Motor Air ESC's.   For power I'm using a 16000ma MutiStar 4S battery. 

It hovers nicely at about 65% throttle in Q_Loiter mode and I got about 18 minutes endurance in copter mode only.  The longest flight combined VTOL/Airplane mode was about 24 minutes. (I only did 3 test flights in forward flight before delivering it to Tyler Perry)

I can post a couple of build pictures, but if you want video, you'll have to watch the show (all of the video is owned by the network.  

Tyler Perry is an RC airplane fanatic and has a private RC runway and a barn with hundreds of RC airplanes.  He was genuinely excited when we delivered this custom built airplane to him for the show.  You can see a preview clip of the Episode here: 

Tyler Perry Likes his new Ardupilot VTOL

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Comments

  • Awesome! Thank you!

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    Sure, I'd be happy to share the STL files with you.  

  • Are you willing to share the 3D Print files on the first versions "boom clamps"?

  • A few years ago I answered an ad about a large RC aircraft collection that was being sold off here in MN, when I called the guy he said I'm sorry but Tyler Perry just showed up with two rented trucks, bought everything, and took it back to GA. He is serious. Looking forward to the show. 

  • Looks great, congratulations Bill!

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    I have another Talon new in the box that I bought after I wrecked the first one.   I'd still like to turn it into a VTOL someday.  I'm located in Connecticut.

  • Thats Cool, I always wanted to do a Talon Build. Nice work

    I used two pixhawks Y'd together with a 9ch spektrum receiver with two PPM encoders. It was a huge mess! This was so I could control everything from my DX9. It had dual telemetry modules, and two instances of Mission planner running on the laptop to control both APs in the air. Its so great now that they have worked out the code to use on a single pixhawk. Inspires me to try again!

    Good luck with your project. PM me if you would like any help, I'm in Los Angles-

  • Moderator

    Yes Joseph, I did see that, and in fact it's what gave me the idea for this one.  You did a fantastic job, especially since it was long before the Arduplane/Quadplane or PX4 firmware was available.  

    My solution to the prop clearance problem was to build those secondary booms.  

    I too have been tinkering with VTOL's for a while.  The first one I built was made from a UAV Talon.  It hovered great, but was totaled when testing full forward flight.  

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  • Glad you could make it work! Not sure if you have seen this:

    http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/out-of-the-black-slt-vtol-uav

    I made one like this 2 years ago. Decided X8 was the way to go because of prop clearance. 

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    Thanks Patrick.  The series will air on July 22 at 6pm on the Science Channel.  I think the Tyler Perry episode is number 6 or 7.  

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