FlyingWings Cloud Horizon - Endurance wing

iPeel · July 11, 2015, 05:54:39 PM

This is a first look at a new prototype from FlyingWings aimed at making a flying wing that can cruise long distances very efficiently, not so much carrying a vast amount of battery, more using what battery it does carry very efficiently and giving good performance on long distance runs. Pretty much my dream wing!

Rob completed the prototype in the middle of this week and maidened her on Thursday where we carried out analysis on flutter and flight characteristics which went well, the prototype has now been delivered to the iPeel Technical Centre of Excellence to be fitted out for long range capabilities.

Here she is fully built:

Nothing too serious, until you realise that antenna is a 1.3Ghz and the prop's a 12 incher! Her wingspan is 1800mm and she only just passed the "will it fit in the back of a VW Golf" test. Note this wing does not come apart, this is to avoid complexity and reduce the weight to a bare minimum.

The centre section is designed to be far more aerodynamic with a softer nose and more streamlined midsection compared to the Venturi Evo. The design accomodated an 11-12" prop intended for low RPM motors for maximum efficiency. Here we're using a 600kv pancake multirotor motor on 4S and in the maiden there was plenty of power, I did the chuck for the maiden flights and all she needed was the normal baseball type throw, made easy by the centre section being grab-able which made throwing around the CG quite easy.

The front still has ample room for a Mobius and separate board cam:

Inside, I've fitted an MFD AP and extended the battery bay to take a couple of 4S 5200's:

Things are a little snug in the rear equipment bay but there is a section under the rear bulkhead where I've stashed the current sensor and BEC, the AP cabling is a tight fit but not unmanageable, free space is wasted space.

It's going to be a week or so before I get to fly her FPV as I'm away next week, but as soon as I'm back and there's any kind of calm weather I'll be conducting efficiency tests to see what she's capable of at cruise with the stock batteries.

Here's the essential stats after installing all the GPV gear:

Wingspan: 1800mm
Dry weight: 1356g
All-up weight with 10.4Ah 4s Multistars: 2218g

I do have some video of the maiden with ground footage and overwing camera footage which I'll look to edit up and get on YT.

NOTE: This is not yet a thing for sale, it doesn't even have a name yet. We're really just figuring out what advantages something like this could have to see if it warrants a bigger wing. I'm looking forward to finding out though! :)

For those wanting some size comparisons, here's the new wing alongside the Venturi Evo and Falcon Evo:

Cheers,

Neil.

Brucey · July 11, 2015, 06:04:08 PM

Looks ace!

Doctor3 · July 11, 2015, 08:21:16 PM

That was a quick turn around !

What does that make the total antenna separation out to be then ?

BlueFlyer · July 11, 2015, 08:41:16 PM

WANT WANT WANT

iPeel · July 11, 2015, 08:44:20 PM

Quote from: Doctor3 on July 11, 2015, 08:21:16 PM
That was a quick turn around !

What does that make the total antenna separation out to be then ?

I spent half a day standing over it planning everything out Ed, then about a day kitting her out.

Separation from RX to TX is 1540mm, there's more space from the VTX antenna to the winglet but I opted instead to use the VTX position to balance left to right weight distribution.

iPeel · July 11, 2015, 08:53:17 PM

Quote from: BlueFlyer on July 11, 2015, 08:41:16 PM
WANT WANT WANT

LOL, planning on leapfrogging the Venturi then Chris? Just ask yourself where you'd store the thing, it defies every one of my wing storage systems.

BlueFlyer · July 11, 2015, 08:55:03 PM

I've got a garage, and I can fit my skyhunter part built in the back of my civic with the seats down... wings on fuselage, tail off. That's a ws of 1.8m too so could fit this in no problem.

Brucey · July 11, 2015, 09:37:38 PM

It will be interesting to see the flight envelope of this. The Venturi is such a great all rounder it will be hard to beat.
I'm sure this will be a great endro plane, but 30 mins of cruising is enough for me.

But I'm sure I'll eat my words and have one!

iPeel · July 11, 2015, 09:45:04 PM

Quote from: Brucey on July 11, 2015, 09:37:38 PM
It will be interesting to see the flight envelope of this. The Venturi is such a great all rounder it will be hard to beat.
I'm sure this will be a great endro plane, but 30 mins of cruising is enough for me.

But I'm sure I'll eat my words and have one!

Too right Bruno, I'd never give up for Venturi for anything! I also promise I'll be doing the mission with my Venturi.

skyscraper · July 12, 2015, 10:07:49 AM

Nice looking Wing...

EDIT: I would have thought it would be worth looking at a 2 piece wing option though. It would be a nice relaxing plane to take on holiday then.

regards
Andy

iPeel · July 12, 2015, 07:15:50 PM

Quote from: skyscraper on July 12, 2015, 10:07:49 AM
Nice looking Wing...

EDIT: I would have thought it would be worth looking at a 2 piece wing option though. It would be a nice relaxing plane to take on holiday then.

regards
Andy

Thanks Andy. Whenever I've had separable wings all I do is worry about them in-flight. I think there's better wings to pack for a holiday too!

iPeel · July 12, 2015, 07:16:43 PM

So here's the video of the maiden flight, not an awful lot to see but there's the over-wing camera on picture-in-picture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTinLsmqNeo

Billy_boy_2010 · July 13, 2015, 11:04:56 AM

Looks great. That's extremely light for a 1.8m wing.

I suppose this main competitor is the x8 and the fx79. Would be interesting to see the flight times and cruising current.

2.2kg and 1.8m span- It should be a pleasure to launch, land and even stall :)

Im in two minds about whether having it collapsable is worth it. The z3 was- but it build super heavy! It may be worth building a collapsable version in the same spec, see what the weight and stiffness penalty would be, fly them very hard and see how the two compare.

skyscraper · July 13, 2015, 11:20:05 AM

Quote from: iPeel on July 12, 2015, 07:15:50 PM
Quote from: skyscraper on July 12, 2015, 10:07:49 AM
Nice looking Wing...

EDIT: I would have thought it would be worth looking at a 2 piece wing option though. It would be a nice relaxing plane to take on holiday then.

regards
Andy

Thanks Andy. Whenever I've had separable wings all I do is worry about them in-flight. I think there's better wings to pack for a holiday too!

I see ... I guess designing a wing that can be taken apart for transport and reassembled simply and reliably is outside the flight envelope of Flyingwings/ ITCE's design capabilities then!

;) :laugh:

regards
Andy

iPeel · July 13, 2015, 11:25:58 AM

Making tough decisions to avoid un-necessary compromise is sometimes the hardest part of the design process Andy. ;)