Few posts ago discussed similarities betwixt Opener's successful Blackfly eVTOL and a flat-pack design of my own circa 2012 that was nonetheless never intended for free flight, for the simple reason I never imagined it capable thereof. What I did imagine it might be used for however is that itch ever to be scratched in the form of ground-effect flight.
With my foray into eVTOL I figured only transport geeks like self shared a dying hobby, but turns out not to be the case... kow-tow if you would to these guys:
Accordingly I've dusted off the ten-year old outline in parallel with the ongoing vertical work, because (a) it's fun whereas (b) VTOL will send you to an early grave long before the inevitable impact. Other reason being however that everything I've learned in the pursuit of the latter feeds into the former. As I've said before, nothing in life is wasted including an afternoon in Stevenage.
Cobbled this baby together from five quarter-sheets of foam and twenty pounds of ballast about where you'd sit ~ and it does look like it would amply support self at its full scale of eight feet by twelve. Thing being, electrical motors and propellers are a game-changer from the point of view of their economy and ease of application... plus I've got them sat in the workshop already.
Best thing too is that this works at whichever stage of development, whereas a human multicopter either flies or else kills you, as did most prototypical flying machines until the advent of simulated flight. Plus framed by the same shapes we've been used to since cavemen, it looks one dogs-bollocks of a stealth-machine.
The design is/was drawn from five stock sheets of ply (or laminated foam), two of which form planes pitched at thirty degrees, one the sides, another the fuselage sides and a final the top and underside thereof.
Watch this naval airspace: https://www.boatdesign.net/gallery/users/colinhilton.53622/
