Looking around at all the unfinished projects, I decided the only way to get me to complete this one some time this year would be to have the pressure of a build thread hanging over me

So here it is, a twin boom pusher made out of depron and carbon fiber. It is 48" in span, 12" chord, with a generic homebrew aquilla style airfoil. The boom section, outer wing panels, and battery/camera pod will be removable so it will collapse down to an easily transportable size. I am hoping to cram a full AP rig (plane, tx, camera, video display/glasses for downlink, spare batteries, field battery, charger, video rx, etc...) all into a hardshell case for electric guitars. Here is the general layout:




Pretty standard design, will have an inverted 'V' tail with a hinge at the top so the tail section can fold/store easily. Here it is with depron ribs laid out, and the receiver tubes for the tail assembly. The tubes are cut from a stock tailboom from a Shogun helicopter, and the booms are Carbon Express CX300 arrow shafts I picked up at a local sporting goods shop. There will be carbon arrow spar on the center section that will double as a receiver for the outer wing panel spars (rectangular CF rod). There will also be a secondary spar on the wing panels for alignment, and the panels will be held in place by magnets. All panels are a 6mm depron base, with 6mm depron ribs, skinned with 3mm depron.




Here is a close up of the tail boom receiver tubes. The booms will be held in by drilling a hole in the side and using a spring loaded pin that will lock them in place. Control rods are 2mm CF rod run through the booms that will have magnets attached to the forward ends that will mate to magnets mounted on clevises attached to the servos (probably hs55's). Flat CF sheet will be used on the center panel ribs and to make a light subframe in the center panel for attachment of the camera/battery pod and landing gear.




Here is a full equipment list:

• Berg6 rx
• Phoenix25 ESC
• AXI 2212/26
• 3s1p 2000mAH HD lipo
• HS-55 servos
• Nikon 3700
• Blackwidow DigiLive downlink

Any input would be appreciated.

Sounds very cool and functional. I am guessing you are shooting for an AUW of around 20-22 ounces? How much dihedral will it have? I hope it works out well, I have every single piece of equipment (an Optio instead of the Nikon though) you are going to use. How big is that electric guitar case?

Jonathan

Originally Posted by CAFplanekid

Sounds very cool and functional. I am guessing you are shooting for an AUW of around 20-22 ounces? How much dihedral will it have? I hope it works out well, I have every single piece of equipment (an Optio instead of the Nikon though) you are going to use. How big is that electric guitar case?

Jonathan

The guitar case is about 42"x14.5"x4.5". For AUW I am guessing around 24oz, and that will give me 6oz/sq.ft. wingloading. There is no dihedral in this version (other than some anticipated flexing of the outer wing panels), but I intend to build additional outer wing panels to try out a polyheidral setup, and alter its flight characteristics for the type of wind for any given day, or any additional gear I may stick on it.

I would be interested to know what kind of wingloading everyone else is getting on their AP rigs?

Keep on posting as your work progresses, it looks interesting.

I did a little more work to it tonight. I also learned that probond melts depron, but not always in a "bad" way (seems to be holding well).

Pics arent working, for some reason.

Hrm, can you reach this?

http://nihil.rchomepage.com

Thats where the pictures are hosted, perhaps they are having DNS errors again.

Nope.

Pics are up now, looking very nice, looks like you have a great, uniform airfoil. I like the way the equipment is mounted in the wing too.

I have an extra set of Steelheads SS replacement cores, they are 24x12 with an efficient airfoil and a spar cutout. I am thinking of doing something similar with them.

jonathan

Are you using carbon fiber tubes and arrow shafts? Or just arrow shafts?

Matt

I havent done anything yet, will start looking for materials this week. Whatever I can find I will use.

Originally Posted by RCFEVER

Are you using carbon fiber tubes and arrow shafts? Or just arrow shafts?

Matt

The arrow shafts are CF, and serve as the tail booms and the main spar. Smaller CF tube serves as the secondary spar, and the secondary spar receiver (bigger tube that the small one slides into). The main spar for the outer wing panels is rectangular CF rod that is a good fit for the inside diameter of the arrow shafts. The tail boom receivers are aluminum tubing.

I just got done drawing up a template for the CF sheet subframe that will mount inside the center. Hope to have the center section finished tonight.

Got some more work done tonight. Here is the template on a makeshift light box (headless maglite in a sink lined with tinfoil covered with a sheet of plexi I use as a workbench):



A test fit to make sure everything lines up:



Mmmmmmmmm, carbon fiber.....



Two pair of scissors, many hand cramps, several dozen splinters, and some duct tape on my thumb later:

This is how I plan to mount the camera/battery pod:



And this is my take on a "quick disconnect" arrangement for the control rods, so I wont have to re-trim it every time I collapse the plane for transport or storage:

That looks awesome! Where do you get the CF? Can't wait to see it all finished.

BTW, how much $ is going into this, as far as materials?

Matt