I've had an enduring pain in the chest, which I now realise stems from the fact that the motors on the fourth prototype were not truly aligned with the axis as they are on the three previous. And the key to good design ~ as with Apple from the get-go ~ is often a refusal to settle for anything less. It's why, as GBS suggested, progress invariably stems from unreasonable people. Were we all to be agreeable then we'd still be eating raw meat, turning it into a YouTube sensation and shifting the merch.
Accordingly I have swapped out the T-bracket securing the rear down-post and used an L-bracket pinned to one side instead, in order to leave the mounting spar flush to the backside of the motor, which is then fitted using two 2x20mm flathead bolts.
August has been used to finalise the configuration of the first POC viz. rear-mounted contra-rotating props which will be used exclusively to bank the craft into turns. What remains of the month will be used to prepare the ground for efforts during the next, which are to include:
(a) updating the website to reflect the current state of affairs (feat. Coldplay)
(b) constructing a hydro-static tank in the back garden
(b) getting the motors 'turning and burning'
Asked to comment on where we go from here, CEO Colin Hilton said 'Construction of the test-tank is to us what the supersonic wind-tunnel is to NASA Ames. I've given it the green light, and it will be a brand-new facility after I rejected the proposal to re-purpose an existing raised flower-bed... which could nonetheless be converted in times of war.
Meantime a review of viewing stats has historically shown, as it has this month, that what the readership of the blog most want is a pictorial record of how prototypes are brought into being in the shed next door. Feedback I do receive from the non-English speaking world, 'Why you stupid man write stupid things instead of making boat?' we take to heart... we feel your pain.
(Ed. Stop digging.)
