Systems For A Flying Wing?

[SpleenRippa]

Hello all,
Just curious as to what is out there that will function with a flying wing? I'm looking to set up a large-ish wing as an AP platform, perhaps with limited autonomous capability down the road.
Most of the systems I've read about seem to want a conventional Rud/Ele setup... Will RCAP work on a wing? What about the FMA Copilot?
Thanks for any/all help! :)

[Unterhausen]

You probably don't care about this, but Crossbow uses a Zagi for their test vehicle for their uNav. Pretty impressive that you can stuff all that hardware on a wing.

[vector_vortex]

Procerus have a lot of experiance with wings, check out their videos. http://www.procerusuav.com/ they sell the kestrel but I dont know about price. Brigham Young Uni seems to be using it.
Have Fun
Joel

[CenTexFlyer]

Back in town now Spleen, so I can address your core needs fairly quickly.

We do nothing but wings for all our sensor packages at RPFlight Systems (http://www.rpflightsystems.com) . I would need to ask what weight camera you wished to fly though before suggesting a wing. We have flown fully autonomous, 18" video only wings that weighed 2 lbs. We can easily fly an 8-10 oz high res dig camera with a 48" wing. Anything under a pound cargo weight requires less than a 60" wingspan. They are ideal for tough environment kind of flying as they handle wing extremely well (up to 50 kts!) and are really pretty tough. They are also pretty good for the camera equipment as you can pretty much encase it in foam.

Gene

[SpleenRippa]

Back in town now Spleen, so I can address your core needs fairly quickly.

We do nothing but wings for all our sensor packages at RPFlight Systems (http://www.rpflightsystems.com) . I would need to ask what weight camera you wished to fly though before suggesting a wing. We have flown fully autonomous, 18" video only wings that weighed 2 lbs. We can easily fly an 8-10 oz high res dig camera with a 48" wing. Anything under a pound cargo weight requires less than a 60" wingspan. They are ideal for tough environment kind of flying as they handle wing extremely well (up to 50 kts!) and are really pretty tough. They are also pretty good for the camera equipment as you can pretty much encase it in foam.

Gene



Hi Gene,

I've been thinking about wing sizes and while a 60" wingspan is easy to transport and good for tight areas, I'm wondering if it will meet the weight requirements for what I will set up now or, do in the future:

- Point&Shoot cam ~5 ounce
- Camera downlink gear
- FMA Copilot and perhaps later a full autopilot board
- gyro-stabilised camera mount, or;
- electronics for a second-user controlled camera mount
Camera mount will be a chin-mount type, on a custom center pod

Thoughts? Looks to me like I might need a bit more than a pound worth of cargo capacity. What about something in the 72-78 inch range?
Thanks!

[CenTexFlyer]

- Point&Shoot cam ~5 ounce
- Camera downlink gear
- FMA Copilot and perhaps later a full autopilot board
- gyro-stabilised camera mount, or;
- electronics for a second-user controlled camera mount
Camera mount will be a chin-mount type, on a custom center pod

Thoughts? Looks to me like I might need a bit more than a pound worth of cargo capacity. What about something in the 72-78 inch range?
Thanks!

Our three piece Spectra system is 52" wingspan with an 8" ABS and carbon fiber pod carrying most all the gear you mention plus a little. AUW with a 5000 mah LiPo comes in at just over 5 lbs. Our wings tend to get more stable as the wing loading goes up so we don't mind if it's a little porky. Especially for AP platform. Obviously you can cut back on mah to gain more on the freight side, but you obviously will lose some duration. If you are like us, most of our missions are 10-15 minutes or even just a takeoff, fly a circuit taking pictures, then land, which can be even shorter.

[SpleenRippa]

Our three piece Spectra system is 52" wingspan with an 8" ABS and carbon fiber pod carrying most all the gear you mention plus a little. AUW with a 5000 mah LiPo comes in at just over 5 lbs. Our wings tend to get more stable as the wing loading goes up so we don't mind if it's a little porky. Especially for AP platform. Obviously you can cut back on mah to gain more on the freight side, but you obviously will lose some duration. If you are like us, most of our missions are 10-15 minutes or even just a takeoff, fly a circuit taking pictures, then land, which can be even shorter.


Ah, yes. Good point on the duration. I definitely don't need to be flying for half an hour at a time. 10-15 minutes, exactly as you said- take off, circuit or three and land. Actually, I was hoping to get away with 4S 2200 packs if I could :)
Well, you're the pro and your comments on wing size and loading are only confirmed by all the other 52-60" inch AP-wing threads out there so I'll go with what works!
Would you mind shooting me a PM with availability of 60" cores (or 52 if it's easier for you!), price, blah blah blah? :p
Thanks! :)

[reedchristiansen]

We use Unicorn Flying wings. They have proven very stable and tip stall resistant even when badly abused, overweight, and poorly balanced.

I am sure about any flying wing would produce similar results, however, we used to use zagis and went away from them because of the nasty tip stall isue.

The Unicorn guy is real easy to work with and has done lots of custom wing cores for us from 48 to 72 inches.

if you have $10,000 you can buy a ready to go UAV from us at http://www.procerusuav.com - If you are a do-it-yourselfer (as most people on this forum are) you could go directly to Unicorn or work with Myron.

Reed

[macboffin]

Hello all,
Just curious as to what is out there that will function with a flying wing? I'm looking to set up a large-ish wing as an AP platform, perhaps with limited autonomous capability down the road.
Most of the systems I've read about seem to want a conventional Rud/Ele setup... Will RCAP work on a wing? What about the FMA Copilot?
Thanks for any/all help! :) Just for interest, this flies on elevone, rudder, throttle, and keying/tilting camera.

[SpleenRippa]

Just for interest, this flies on elevone, rudder, throttle, and keying/tilting camera.


Wow, that's a nifty bird! Any more details about that camera mount?
What do you have mounted as far as a copilot/uav system?

[macboffin]

Produced quite a few of these for military and other uses.More pics in the "Video piloting" section. Camera was a very small but high quality board camera drom Maplins in U.K. TP lens, mounted on trunnions so a micro servo could tilt between forward and down, any angle that seemed a good idea to the pilot.(Used the flap channel to control).2.4 gigs downlink to Sony Glastron goggles and VCR. Housed the camera in a cut-away cockpit canopy for drag reduction. TX in the wing thickness, with cooling airflow from slots in the surface.Aerial mounted in "Blade" fairing under the wing.50" span, 4lb weight,O.S.32 power with 10x6 APC prop, duration 45 minutes on 8oz tank. Very low drag, would cruise nicely on fast idle throttle setting.

[Itzik Ronen]

look at this one:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=682448
And the UAVV – System Design documents for this platform:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=678707
Itzik