Here's how I'm making the centre-section. Yes, I know: where are the carbon-fibre pre-pregs, moulds, autoclave and staff? Piling 'em high to both build and sell them cheap requires a little imagination, however, so here I'll experiment with laminated 'backer-board' for this element of the flat-cat.
Invented in China ~ as most things are when it comes to innovative production ~ it consists of an extruded polystyrene (EPS) bounded by polymer cement and fabric mesh. As such it provides a perfect matrix for preparing bathroom or kitchen walls, or for that matter building boats less expensively.
The Ukrainians alone produce over four million drones each year, and if you want to produce in great numbers then a means of continuous production is the way to go. When I first bought a house, the basis for plastering walls and ceilings required any number of laths to be pinned onto timbers to provide purchase: whilst now we use plasterboard which emerges from machines instead, don't we?
What I've done here though is taken 2' by 4' sheet (ideally 1" thick but 20mm here) and taken a 6" slice off each end, before dividing what remains into four strips that form 6" by 36" panels to provide the top, bottom and sides of the accommodation.
I say accommodation because I'd like to skate, sail, hover and fly it one day, though in larval form as it is here it'll be restricted to drones; where we can at least use the space for batteries and electrical components so it looks less jury-rigged altogether.
Jury-rigged ~ me hearties ~ is a nautical term for a mast thrown up temporarily to replace one that was either broken or not quite ready. Its origin may derive from the French for 'day', which may have been how long they generally lasted. I hope my drones last more than a day, but if people start using them to torpedo larger vessels ~ as is fashionable these days ~ they may last no longer than morning dew.
