Revisit the 1/10th scale draft in Apple's Pages on the basis of 'Measure twice, cut once' and indeed there are dimensional errors that require correcting among our outline of the lower quad. A point to notice in these documents is that the software dimensions each element to the centreline of each object, so that where we've tubular sections of around 1" (or 5-point in typeset with), the width of the tube itself will add a half-inch in excess of the drafted measure.
That said, all of these are outside dimensions, the extended length of the cantilevers being attributable to an extra 2" to mount the motors, plus a further 1" to represent the right-angle tube connector that will provide a stub undercarriage at each corner, upon which either skids or simple feet will be mounted. The weight at these points will be considerably relieved why the fact that the payload in the shape of mannekin, phone-box accommodation and upper quad will be 'nested' with the 12" aperture at the centre-point prior to fixing in place.
The aims of the rebuild are to shorten and stiffen the 'phone-box' whilst rendering the airframe altogether more rigid at the same time, in order for the flight-controller not to be countered in its operation by undue flexure. We shall look at a draft upper quad in the subsequent post.
Meantimes the GoFly Challenge and its million-dollar prize remains open 'til the 26th of next month, by when I expect some traction at a half-scale at least, albeit any hope of competing for anything at full scale remains a distant prospect as yet. Nonetheless anyone designing air vehicles with distributed electrical propulsion need consider this: every aspect of the software and hardware can only improve year upon year in order to simplify the task of building a practical personal flyer, whilst the only static variable remains the aerodynamics.
Accordingly, should we achieve a full-scale beta-product in the months ahead then its prospects will only improve in the period beyond and not least with operational usage.
