Outstanding, all of it. From the aircraft to the improvements between the first flight and this maiden. I'm a 66-year-old and haven't mastered my pan and tilt eagle glider yet, but I have a few FPV flights on it. Dreams only remain for that type of achievement.
I was starting to build something like this a few years ago but then realized the complexity of programming the mixing was way out of my abilities. Job well done!
I designed an airplane in 1990 that was like this with a few differences. It was a full sized with forward swept wings and a canard. The motors had a different configuration also. I love that you made & posted this vid because it shows that the idea is viable. I'm curious about the performance envelope. Keep it up, you a genius.
Great job watched it about 6 times to get an Idea of your concept because I was trying to figure out how you got forward motion . Loved the Idea of front motors and how the rotated forward on rod great idea looking forward to more videos on this keep up the amazing job you have done Take care
Thanks for the comment! I realise I skipped on the more important parts of the build. Once I get the tune dialed in, I'll make a more in-depth video about how it works and my design decisions.
Great flying. Would have liked to see a split screen view from a standing point perspective so I could see how things correlate to the first person view. Keep it up. Tony
Seeing a delta wing hover and maneuver like that is amazing. Have you analyzed the power draw from the battery during the transition periods? I have to imagine it's quite high but would be interested in seeing the comparison (hover, transition, flight).
During transition it reaches peak 45A current, which is the maximum continuous current of my battery. Hover is 25-30A, flight at 70km/h is around 8-10A if I remember correctly.
Ciao! Molti complimenti per questo fantastico lavoro. Anche io sto lavorando a un progetto simile! Posso chiedere a te qualche consiglio? Per esempio. Io immagino che i due motori anteriori sono collegati a due servocomandi separati per eseguire Hovering correttamente e anche per il tilt per la conversione in volo traslato. È corretto? Grazie in anticipo per le tue gentili risposte. Buon lavoro!
This is great. It seemed to perform really well. The combination of VTOL fans (which are thrust vectoring for additional control) plus a wing for efficient forward flight seems obvious. The wings are only a big negative if you need to hover or hold a position, such as a drone monitoring a fixed point. But in terms of ideal capability + efficiency, something like what you have made but where the fans are shrouded a bit to reduce forward drag, plus a higher aspect ratio wing (sailplane) for forward efficiency seems ideal.
Hi! Thanks for the interest but this design only has a couple of 3D printed parts and I don't think it is good enough to be public. I am however designing a new version that is going to be entirely printed (I'm thinking ASA for the heat resistance, lower density than PLA and higher strength than LW-PLA) and also quadcopter not tricopter. I also checked the Helix out and it looks really cool.
@@gregavrzel1 do you have a discord or some other chat source? I'd love to help design and build a prototype. I'm currently working on a Tricopter/ wing setup myself, would be great to work together on this.
If you trust manufacturer that the servo won't fail and you know the servo has enough torque, then it's good. I think for a small scale aircraft the only other actuator you could use is a gimbal motor.
Hey, great video and demonstration, and beautifully built 🙌💯, I am trying to build something similar, may I know how can I contact you regarding this about the RC plan. It would be a great help for me and many other hobbyists. Thanks in advance
Любая установка вертикального взлета делает любую модель более энергозатратной, поэтому целесообразнее сделать систему парашютной посадки, а взлет с катапульты или запуск с рук!
Yes that is true, however my intention with this model was taking of and landing in places I couldn't before. With a correct configuration, this also becomes a fool proof system with only little that can go wrong.
Yes. So the first version you saw in the video, at first I tried to fly it without winglets and it had all the characteristics you would expect. Wobble and extreme flutter. To the point it looked like a bird. I then made those really big winglets to try and fix that and it worked. I would say it all comes down to the winglets. Sweep is about 30 degrees and if the winglets are mounted at the tips they should act as a vertical stabilizer as well as thrust devices. Another thing is, the plane is stabilized with a flight controller and in the latest flights I also enabled differential thrust which contributes to yaw stability. Not much but at least not to the point it would start spiraling down. The one bad thing to this design I would say are the control surfaces. I was watching a video about Prandtl wing and they said that control surfaces should be on the outboard of the wings, so you don't change the spanload. This design has the entire rear section of the wing as a control surface and who knows what that does to the airflow. I'll be fixing that in the next version though.
@@gregavrzel1 I also used to fly tricipters alot but Betaflight no longer supports it. I have a DIY tricipter sat doing nothing now. How is ardupilot ?
@@rumbey1 I really like that they have everything well documented. Basically to setup you just follow instructions. This wing was actually my first tricopter or any copter I ever made and it flies ok. Ardupilot is just really powerful and whatever you think of, you can do with it. Tuning was also not difficult. It has acro mode, airmode and at the same time you can do a waypoint mission.
information did you ever learn about Optimization of Distribution of Mass (dom). :27 the mass of wing-located servos should be located just-forward-of the Thirty percent of chord line.! the height of these vert-stabs was excessive. a decision to use wingtip-located vert-stabs should be an Informed one.! said another way, the negative aspects of the use of wingtip vert-stabs are 'extra' mass and Drag, located at the wingtips.! d
Hi. Thanks for the comment. This is the first time I'm hearing about dom. It seems shifting servos forward would definitely help. The only reason why I placed them so far back, was due to linkage bending. I didn't really think about many aspects of this design but I will use this knowledge in next version. I didn't check anything about vertical stabilizers, true. I just designed them "artistically" shall we say. Should their size depend on tail volume calculation, or what should I look for? I was thinking to completely abandon winglets in the next version and just use bell-shaped spanload with differential spoilers at wing tips. Do you think this would work?
Those are all cool vtol configs for sure. I made this model for my final school project and I had to be sure it was going to work, so I kept it simple.
Curviness at wingtips is not necessarily bad. Blended winglets are a thing. If not for function, at least they contribute to aesthetics (this is not supposed to be an 80s car design). But sure, a lot of efficiency improvements that help airliners don't actually make any noticeable difference to small scale crafts such as this. This model didn't need such large control surfaces, but this was my decision to make it easier to build. I already saw the negative effects they had in the first flight, because I had to use a lot of up-trim in order to keep the plane flying level. Based on the analysis I did, reflexed airfoil is not bad, whether there are stabs or not. They make the plane self stabilized and don't require a lot of twist at the wingtips to correct for pitching moment. Compare that with a normal airfoil and you need to use a lot negative twist at wingtips to keep the plane level and that means downforce (is not efficient).
@@gregavrzel1 Interesting point. As I see the issue of efficiency, I understand that downforce per se is not providing any positive points regarding lift. But, hasn't the Prandtl wing showed, that airflow along a wing resulting in pressure gradients at the wing tip is resulting in a lot of drag, which in turn again is decreasing efficiency?
