Scaling up a Versa blunt nose.

[helimadness]

Hi All.

I made a Versa blunt nose for FPV and just struggling a bit with Room inside. I have the design as a cad file and a 20m x 1.6m plotter at work so can scale it up as much as I like and cut easily.

Was thinking to go say 130 to 150% ish bigger. Maybe make the blunt nose section with some ply and carbon to remove the beam in the middle where the fattest part is. Maybe make the wings removable in the process to make transport easy.

If I just scale this up is it going to work or completely throw everything out?

Cheers

[BlueFlyer]

take a look at the kraken plane flite test did... much bigger than the versa and designed as such. might be an idea

[Billy_boy_2010]

Yeah I think the flite test kracken is 200% from memory. And it's a tractor with landing gear. It's more a lumbering boat than a fast agile wing like the versa.

i have 3 large wings. two 60"  and one 53". I must admit the 53" is quite a lot easier to carry and bring around. Unless you have a big car, 60" is perhaps a bit too big a lot of the time.

I would take a look at the size of the battery bay of the flying wings venturi and zephyr and perhaps clone that.

Or save yourself the hassle and buy the excellent venturi EVO.

[helimadness]

Thanks all good things to look at. The Kraken looks interesting. I do like the look of the pusher prop but. I think something half way between the Kraken and the Versa in terms of performance would be good.
The Versa was surprisingly fast when I first got it going. Been trying to slow the controls down a lot. Run out of range mechanically. Was thinking of trimming the flaps down a bit. Havent had a chance to have a decent FPV with it but as the video TX packed up and was rubbish from 100m out so need to sort that. I want to give it a bit more time as I think it might be fine was tuned in properly.

I was very surprised how stiff the foam board is. I think that helps it performance a lot. What I dont like is its still fairly fragile. Need to be careful how you pick it up or you dent the foam with your fingers. Was thinking of trying to find something a little more solid. Hopefully without weighing any more which might be the problem. I think the versa is actually fairly heavy but. Maybe too much hot glue.

Also thinking if I could make a bigger pod in the middle could make removable wings to make transport easier.

Lots of ideas. Just have to try and get something to work :-)

Cheers

[Billy_boy_2010]

For the money you get I still can't believe how cheap the Venturi evo is. £75ish for the whole package. Way better than messing about with the foam board IMO.

Hot glue is heavy and the foam board is rubbish if it gets wet. Even landing on grass damn from morning dew would weaken it IMO. And it's hard to strengthen it too.

If you just love building, or want something bigger fair dos. But the Venturi really is worth looking at.

Having said that- I would kill for a big 80-85" wing with removeable tips for transport.

[BlueFlyer]

X8 billy boy ;)

as for a slightly bigger wing than the Versa... seriously take a look at the FPV wings from flyingwings.co.uk, I'm currently building a Falcon EVO and then there's it's big brother the Venturi EVO

[Billy_boy_2010]

X8 billy boy ;)

I have looked into it. But it's not my type of wing. X8 is a mothership designed to carry a bucket load of batteries and cruise at medium speed. It will never be a fast bank and yank decent wing. It's so floppy it needs load of reinforcement for even moderately speed dives.

I want a 80" wing that I can fit a mental motor on with a 6s and run it with either 1 or 2 batteries. 2 batteries for long flight time and bashing around pulling high G or 1 battery for really slow efficient flying. I'm converting one of my 60" to 6s as a trial run first :)

[BlueFlyer]

there's a reason that fast planes have small wings like this:



and planes with slow speeds in mind have bigger wings like this:




what you just described is a plane with big wings, but that can fly really fast and be aerobatic. can't wait to see what you come up with :)

[Billy_boy_2010]

I guess I like the idea of bashing around pulling G with the 6s setup, or climbing up to a decent altitude real quick and then gliding around up there.

Why can't a big wing be fast? Is the power required exponential perhaps? Or the strength needed to handle the Gs very high?

[BlueFlyer]

it depends on materials and construction technique.

Depron, no spars, layered for stiffness/rigidity   -   small wings stay rigid, larger longer wings built the same way would be far too floppy for the speeds you talk about.

Depron, carbon spars and layered for stiffness   -   would be able to build the wings a bit bigger before it gets too floppy

go to the complete other end...

composite materials/carbon fibre, CAD designed with structural strength in mind, stiffened at the right places, you can make a much bigger wing and keep it stiff.


There are a range of materials and build techniques in between of course, but I assumed you were talking about Depron, EPP or EPO type aircraft that are prevalent in this hobby.

[helimadness]

The Venturi looks like a decent step up. Looks like a good compartment for all the electronics and lipos. How stiff are they only being EPP? I have a Teksumo and its fairly flappy and only 900mm wide. The foam board im sure has its downsides but is stiff.

Is there something you can coat them in, stick on vinyl or something to stiffen them up and make a bit more durable without adding too much weight?

The other problem is I am living in China at the moment so cant find them here locally. Could bring one back next time I am there I guess. Hence getting plans and making is a little more attractive.

I can get X8's here and did have my eye on them but just not convinced they are the right material for something that big. Also watched some videos of them doing a spiral death dives so turned me off a bit.

Cheers

[Brucey]

You have to laminate the Venturi, makes it stiff and durable

[helimadness]

You have to laminate the Venturi, makes it stiff and durable

Whats the best way to laminate them? Just with film or with resin and matt of some kind. Would imagine that would start to get heavy.

Just saw this little gem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tm0y-ygJU8

[Brucey]

It's an iron on clear plastic film with heat activated adhesive on one side.
It does add a small amount of weight, but the benifits massively out do the weight added.

[helimadness]

Is that like solar film in the old days ?

At my work we have clear PET film with a X ply fiber about 1" spacing out of Kevlar or Polyester. Is reasonable stable and sticks very well. Weights about 110gsm so wont add too much weight. Maybe a bit of heat might shrink it will have to test it out. I have a broken up Skywalker 1900 that was a maiden flight wright off I might do some tests.

Also have the glue only we stick onto Cuben fibre which is a spectra fiber but super strong and stable. Also slippery so would make a super nice finish. Just a tad more expensive :-)