Elephant in the room - Quadcopters...

[youtube]XCfCqShNO9Y[/youtube]

:oops:
 
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Apparently, building yer own is now "childs play".
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Seen here:
http://inhabitat.com/students-create-a-battery-powered-personal-helicopter/

"...capable of carrying one pilot weighing up to 70 kg (154 lbs) for five minutes." (Not clear on performance at 5min.1sec.)

"Each of the craft’s 24 motors drives a 76 centimeter, 2.2kW propeller."

Hehe... craft name "Snowstorm"
 
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The Aerial Plus gives you all that you need to capture your Ghost flights in stunning high resolution with the custom Ehang Sports camera. With the Micro SD card to ensure that you can store all of your images, this package is the ultimate in drone experience. And, controlled by an intuitive iPhone app, with unique features like tilt mode and auto-following, it provides users with a fun flying experience and professional levels of camera control.

Yes, that neighbour that likes to "sunbath au naturale" in their back yard is no longer safe. :(
https://www.touchofmodern.com/sales...103-a753-2975579a71c1/ghost-aerial-plus-black

(At time of ES posting $669.99US, was $799.00US.)
 
http://www.worktruckonline.com/chan...60108&utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Enewsletter 8)
Ford has developed a drone delivery system that could be deployed from the rear of an F-150 truck that could be used for emergency response or commercial uses in agriculture, forestry, construction, bridge inspection or other surveying work.
Ford partnered with drone maker DJI to develop the system as part of its Ford Smart Mobility initiative studying ways to improve mobility, autonomous vehicle technology, customer experience, data, and analytics.
The system uses Ford SYNC and OpenXC software platforms to achieve drone-to-vehicle connectivity.
The system could allow first responders in the United Nations Development Program to inspect emergency zones caused by an earthquake or tsunami.
 
that chinese drone for humans, that lockh posted is what i've been waiting for, someone had to do it, could it be a game changer for transportation? Or only for the thrill seekers?
I see it has dual props on each quad arm, if one set of props fail, you still have the other set as back up to land safe.
Would also need parachute of course.
Its extremely dangerous contraption, so I doubt it would ever be used by public. Any videos of it on the net, of it flying with human in it?
 
whatever said:
Any videos of it on the net, of it flying with human in it?

At 2:34? Might show a "pilot" sitting in the craft while flying:
[youtube]IrPejpbz8RI[/youtube]
 
they are brave pilots, if it takes off it would revolutionise short range transport, they are claiming a high level of safety,
i doubt though they would ever be classed as safe enough for human transport though. I doubt I would have the nerve to get it one. The quad appears very smooth takeoff compared to tiny quads. thnx for link
 
LockH said:
whatever said:
Any videos of it on the net, of it flying with human in it?

At 2:34? Might show a "pilot" sitting in the craft while flying:]
...hmm ?..very unlikely. Why would they take the risk ?
Most likely a weighted simulation dummy.
Practicality ?..even if the technical issues are resolved, how much insurance do you think you would need ..personal and 3 party, public liability etc,..to fly something like that in any populated area ?
 
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"... tested *sometimes* with passengers." Hmmm
 
I could see something like this being used for transport of goods over shorter distances.
I've been thinking for some time about how you would incorporate the vertical take off capacity of quads with a winged aircraft.
I quite like the prandtl plane design ( biwing) but tricky to match it to a quad design, especially if you dont want to have pivoting motors for vertical and forward modes.
 
You would not have to tilt the rotors, just tilt the whole aircraft forward and position the wings so they contribute to lift during forward flight. You have to do some calculations and airfoil selection to determine how much wing you wanted though. It is a good idea, I just don't like the idea of zero glide slope combined with zero auto rotational capability. No sane pilot would buy one as it is currently designed, especially considering these things wouldn't fly high enough to jump out of in an emergency.
 
i started building 4m wingspan prandtle plane design, for a birdman rally, alot of study done in italy on the designs,
but never finished it, the rally got cancelled, will go back to it one day I hope and finish it off.
Plenty of info on the net from the italian research.
leaving the motors in vertical lift position and some angle on the wings for forward flight is interesting idea.
If there were some really simple method to get prop thrust vertical and another mode for horizontal would be ideal, but I dont think can be done simply.
 
Cool. Picked up a new oxymoron expression. "sane pilot". Personally, always preferred getting across waters by boat. On theory it's better to go splash than to go splat. Locally have been trying to get folks interested in lighter-than-air "zeppelin" balloon travels. So low and slow for sightseeing.
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Australia deploys shark-spotting drones to keep watch over beachgoers
The Little Ripper is a modified version of a military-grade Vapor 55 drone that's been fitted with advanced camera and sensing technologies. The battery-powered, AU$250,000 (US$178,500) drone streams live footage back to the ground, and according to The Daily Telegraph can fly for 150 minutes at a time and up to 100 km (62 mi) away.
http://www.gizmag.com/australia-shark-spotting-drones/42096/#
 
Flying robot lawnmower seems a little sketchy with so many single point failure moving parts in a rotor-head.

That flight time is done easily enough at sub $5k (rather than >$150k) with a quad-copter and perhaps a bit safer in the event of malfunctions.
TheBeastie said:
Australia deploys shark-spotting drones to keep watch over beachgoers
The Little Ripper is a modified version of a military-grade Vapor 55 drone that's been fitted with advanced camera and sensing technologies. The battery-powered, AU$250,000 (US$178,500) drone streams live footage back to the ground, and according to The Daily Telegraph can fly for 150 minutes at a time and up to 100 km (62 mi) away.
http://www.gizmag.com/australia-shark-spotting-drones/42096/#
 
I think drones are a great solution to the problem of people in the sharks environment ( I'm a surfer from way back),
To spend 1/4million dollars on one drone is absolutely crazy waste of money.
I think each surf club could get local schools involved, theirs likely plenty of drones already being used by students.
If each surf club had a nice big screen, i'm sure there would be plenty of volunteers could be trained quickly to use cheap drones for video survellience of the beaches. All they would need is a couple of quad copters, plenty of batteries ( on charge) to keep the drone in the air. Senseless waste of money, each beach that has a clubhouse needs its own set of quads/batteries, and people who can fly them ( volunteer schoolies would be ideal)
 
150 minutes on a camera equipped quad copter? The current record is just over 180 minutes for a stripped down quad with using a hydrogen fuel cell for power. I may be wrong but I haven't seen anything close to helicopters for flight times in the world of multi rotors. Though I do agree that price is just silly.
 
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