As ever you'll get the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth... on the day that Elizabeth Holmes begins an eleven-year stay in a penitentiary for exaggerating what tech can do.
Last week's test-flights proved to be what Elon Musk calls a success and everyone else considers a failure. Which is probably why he's a multi-billionaire and we're not.
Flex is the Achille's heel of drones, with control predicated on every motion sensed by the flight-controller being attributable to alterations of vehicular trajectory and not to the elastic response of its various parts. The day being hot and the lower two-thirds of the airframe being constructed in plastic, perhaps this can be forgiven.
The upper and lower drones were however wired in X-8 control logic, meaning that all control motions had to be transmitted throughout the entire frame, the bulk of which was literally plastic. By way of a Catch-22 however I was unable to rebuild the lower drone and accommodation box in alloy ~ as I'd done for the upper quad ~ because the power on hand from the eight U7 T-motors would be insufficient.
Ruined my weekend for sure, but as Marcel Proust wrote, the way out of depression is to make a decision... any decision. Accordingly we've a three-pronged means to rectify the situation prior to further flight-testing.
Firstly, a reduction in the payload by way of removing the mannekin's legs. If it worked for Douglas Bader, then it can work for Monty.
Secondly, stiffening each of the drones with carbon-fibre straps that cross-brace the longitudinal bars attaching each pair of motors to their respective airframe.
Thirdly, allocating directional control to the upper drone alone and flight-testing that one independently prior to attaching it to the vehicle.
This leaves the motors of the lower drone running at a consistently higher RPM that is more efficient and which mirrors conventional helicopter control in so far as collective merely offsets the weight of the payload prior to cyclic ever getting involved in control.
The addition of cross-braces, incidentally, will appear something like that seen below, which looks quite fun in itself... Landspeeder, anybody?
