EngineerAllenFixed wing aircraft are more efficient than rotary wing (quadcopters, helicopters, etc) in forward flight but are less agile and therefore not capable of landing without suitable infrastructure such as runways. This lack of agility in fixed wing aircraft limits their applications.
Combing both propulsion methods into a hybrid propulsion system results in one or both systems to be inefficient to a degree where the aircraft becomes unfeasible.
This is known through some basic physics relating to airfoils, for instance;
A large diameter, low pitch, slow rotating, 2-blade, hummingbird shaped propeller is optimal for hovered flight.
For forward flight, greater velocity correlates to more blades per propeller, more aggressively pitched blades, faster rotating blades.
Optimising efficiency can allow for a feasible novel VTOL aircraft by combining and optimising both propulsions systems.
The main concern is a resulting increase in complexity with regards to the issue of having different propulsion systems working together.
Not bad, not bad at all Allen *taps one's self on the back*
Ryan Michaud
Joshua Elsdon
John Boyd
This is definitely a most promising approach to VTOL capability in an efficient UAV. I am currently working on a similar system. Looking through your project, I am wondering about the design of the wing section. It seems to me (from the current frame design) that the center point of thrust of the VTOL propulsion is far outside the center of gravity of the aircraft. Did you consider this already in your design?
What flight controller are you planning to implement in the new V2?
What is the purpose of the 3S batteries?
Concerning the V22, the difficulties in the control came from the fact that they have only two tilting motors (plus wings), not like in your design the 3 / 4 propulsion units and a fixed wing. Quite a different story...