Covidiary #2

Might seem trite with practically four hundred souls succumbing to the fever in the past twenty-four hours to be building drones, but then when all of this is over and there's an almighty tax bill to be paid then we're going to need to earn the revenue. And so I plod on, inspired by the example of so many others in these direst of straits.

I'm taking it easy on myself as the song says during this lockdown in the UK, and I've limited myself to (a) changing the colour of the lower quad from black to red and (b) fitting motors to it. I like the expression 'lower quad' incidentally... has a distinctly collegiate feel to it.

My design philosophy centres on DIY, or literally the ability to do everything by yourself, and this extends to transporting, assembling, operating and disassembling where required. Accordingly as things stand what you have here is a simple quad some 50" square that is bolted to the bottom of a passenger compartment, with another bolted on top.

You're probably thinking that the lowermost set of propellers are going to be mowing the lawn, but I've thought of that. With what remains of the week there will be an undercarriage added, and like so much else that is a part of this design, it will be unique in appearance... I've always preferred the road less travelled.

One lesson from watching preparations for the GoFly challenge in fact was that the lightest possible airframe needs combining with the sturdiest possible set of skids, having seen any number of heavy landings. As things stand, helicopters (albeit with seven or eight decades of development behind them) have what I would call perfect 'poise', whereas drones do not. They hold there station with the consummate ease of a hoverfly, but land like a dead duck.

(On the software side of things too, the lower set of motors and propellers will be stopped prior to landing, in order to give those expensive carbon-fibre blades a fighting chance).

Covidiary #1

Eleven o'clock this Monday morning must have been ground zero in terms of my motivation. With stores either closed or closing and deliveries re-prioritised in the face of the pandemic, it is hard to know quite how to proceed.

In the first instance I shall make-do-and-mend in terms of the material to hand in order to complete at least a static exhibit to list on the VFS database;

In the second instance I have as of today effectively frozen the design for the foreseeable future, so that by hook or by crook it will have to be made to work... and no 'ifs' or 'buts'.

In the third, there has to be a fundamental re-think of how best to proceed in the face of adversity, in the way that nations re-configure daily life during war-time.

I do have an idea that combines all three, but more on that later.

On the Fifth Day...

... creatures that fly were created.

Hay While the Sun Shines

In the event I modify the existing 2/3rd scale airframe to closer suit the the idealised space-frame drafted at the kitchen table earlier in the week, and am pleased with the result. Lower limbs are now protected within the outline and there'll be a single point-of-attachment for drones top and bottom.

Change of Tack

Take the unusual step of posting twice in the one day. The pop-riveter expires on me, not least because I discover my final (Coronavirus) supply of rivets is of the wrong type. I look again at the 2/3rd scale prototype and decide to stick with it, if only to reduce the workload. 

It is heavier than the space-frames outlined in the previous post, but I don't think that really matters in the scheme of things. This one here weighs only eight kilos (or eighteen pounds) after all, and in view of the fact the dummy it is destined to carry weighs only three ~ whilst my son for instance weighs twenty-three ~ then that's not an issue.

Accordingly I mount it on the drone I've struggled to complete this afternoon, and the prop clearance looks ideal. I'll stick with Plan A therefore and get this flying, and use it as click-bait thereafter in an effort to raise funding for something able to support an adult.

And given the accelerated pace of the virus in the UK today, we'll all be in need of support of one kind or another in the coming months...

Reebox

With the country in Coronavirus lockdown and hardware stores closed as of today, it was wise in retrospect to have got in the last of my supplies yesterday... not so much food that is, as aluminium.

But I feel the times call for desperate measures, and in step with the current circs I decide to pare the airframe (to be suspended between a pair of drones as per...

http://teledrone.blogspot.com/2020/03/patrick-patron-saint-of-engineering.html )

to the bone, consistent with structural and aesthetic requirements. For designers the simple chair is a stock in trade, and I've hankered after draughting one for years ~ and now I have.

Seems a trivial thing to be doing somehow, but then the novelist Herman Hesse continued writing in exile in Switzerland throughout WW2. He felt artists were like flowers in that they continued to blossom, war or no.

Finally ~ and some time later ~ in accordance with what I call "Dyson's Dictum" that you learn nothing until you start building, I modify the space-frame in order to make assembly rather easier. Design is a many-headed beast, design for manufacture not the least of them.

Post-a-Paint

I consider briefly ~ but only very briefly ~ leaving the airframe in unvarnished alloy. I decide against it firstly because there are too many plain alloy frames out there among eVTOLs, and secondly because it's a part of our 'signature' dish. The argument against relates primarily to weight, or the contents of the two or three spray-cans that are required.

Very briefly too the airlines considered dispensing with the weight of paint, but rejected the idea (clearly) because it left them unbranded, and preserving a brand was more important in the end to most of them than preserving fuel.

I mean you can save on food by never going outside, but what kind of life would that be? Well with Coronavirus encircling the globe in its grip, we're all about to find out...