Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Ain't Beaten Yet


Been giving it a deal of thought this past eighteen days and the nub is what we've to offer that's unique to all of these outlines, and it's the fact that they're all some form of container raised by drones above and below.

The problem since the outset has been that the concept of a two-metre booth that I could stand in exceeds the dimensions allowed (by the GoFly challenge) from the tips of the lowest rotors to those of the highest.

Replacing a booth you can stand in with one to support a seated passenger still requires a height of a metre and a half... which also exceeds the allowable dimensions.

The most practical airframe is therefore a version like this measuring just one metre high that I can stand in, and which still bears out the original concept whilst remaining within the permissible guidelines.

Notwithstanding the original drawing, however, I shall use the 'H' layout for each drone that was preferred after our experience in California.

The patent agent appears to have lost interest so I shall be back-pedalling on the IP for the time being at the same time as wishing Martin Andrews goodbye, and good luck.

It was after all just the two of us who got the machine to the USA for the third phase of the competition, and what we've done before we can do again.

Saturday, July 11, 2020

Car Crash


Been a long day, and lessons learned as to how these airframes should be constructed and transported. First up, don't bolt a trailer together without lock-nuts. Second, the rotor arms need to be rather more substantial. And third, those castors have to go.

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

WO2019158943

This has been published for some time, but am only recently made aware. We'll not pursue it further but it'll remain there for the record, forming as it does the basis of the current effort. 

That remains a box suspended between a pair of quadcopters, except that it looks now that a box-frame that supports a flying sedan-chair looks altogether more promising for any number of reasons.

Onward and upward...

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Step Away from the Vehicle


After three and a half months in lockdown I'm in warmer climes, and besides catching up with the Fokkers am wrestling with trying to combine the stringencies of the GoFly rules regarding allowable dimensions with the outlines of a workable commercial flying machine. 

Happily it appears I have the answer, or else one of them at least, and so back to work...