tsungxu

I do agree that trains and then streetcars created suburban corridors, but suburbia as we know it today became possible with highways and mainstream car adoption post WW2, at least in the US.

Ultimately the early generations of flying cars are not capable enough to replace all car use. The Tesla Roadster or even the Nissan Leaf did not replace a first or second car but was an additional vehicle for most buyers.

The two first order reasons (certification overhead on engineering and low volumes) as to why personal aircraft are so expensive can finally be addressed. https://www.tsungxu.com/i/202017969/the-small-aircraft-cost-...

Walking made 2-mile villages feel local.

Cars made 20-mile cities feel local.

Flying cars will make 200-mile regions feel local.

Yeah it's a strange term because it probably originated relative to fixed wing planes. Ie a VTOL plane. But now multicopters are the predominant species so VTOL can sound redundant to most drone builders today.

Thanks, really appreciate that

Thanks! Not robust exactly because the filament I used is has really poor impact and UV resistance. But that's the tradeoff with lightweighting

Yes, you're right, I meant ACCST not SBUS

Thanks! On the normal jobs point though, see Peter Ryseck's build which got him hired by Joby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd2N_lyO_SQ

This is neat! It seems like it could help with set up speed generally and also simplicity for beginners

Aesthetics follows function in this case. And agreed VTOL is not beneficial at hobbyist scale for most because of the ease and short distances required to hand/runway launch and land an RC plane

Great question, but spinning lifting motors in cruise draws more power than it's worth for efficiency.

There's ways to use differential thrust for multiple cruise motors to roll if not positioned at spanwise Cg (e.g. wing mounted like in a commercial jet), but again, usually not efficient. Servos are a small mass fraction relative to other components.

I actually managed to batch print the wing sections which you can see in the video in the rebuild chapter. That works really well for wing sections because each takes up a minimal bed area

I saw that one too which was also incredible. This latest record was from a few days ago https://youtu.be/8p5eZ4ZRkfY?si=hSxTh5BeSyEwzpy8

A1, 256 x 256 mm lets me print these wings in four sections (including a double walled thin section for the boom mounts). With a high AR glider you'd probably need a few more. Carbon fiber spars + CA glue will do the trick for attaching them

Thank you, appreciate that!

Yes and there is foaming ASA as well which is almost as light as foaming PLA. But I can't print ASA well on my A1 and the weight penalty was still enough that I didn't try, given the mission profile of flight time.

This actually has decent flight time! Could probably push close to 3 hours if using higher energy density (and cost) battery cells like the silicon anode ones I used.

I used single wall foaming PLA which has filament density of ~0.45 g/cm3 at 250 degree nozzle temp, about 64% lower than normal PLA. But it is even worse for impact resistance than normal PLA. Weight was the primary driver for this plane

Thanks a bunch! Good point, might share there as well

Thank you!

Yes it really depends on the transmitter protocol. I was using SBUS, simple, cheap, familiar from my previous project. But limited to < 1 mile or so I believe, but ELRS and other protocols allow tens of miles or more.

Yes, one of the challenges though is airframe structural integrity when building it yourself. Need to have good enough understanding of multicopter and fixed wing plane design

Thanks! I'm using the standard Ardupilot control systems for hover, transition and cruise flight. On the firmware side, it's just some parameters and tuning that is customized.

What I started with - Had built one VTOL before from foamboard, not 3D printed. - Familiar with Ardupilot from that project and assembling a multicopter and COTS VTOL. - So I had a little experience building a structurally sound airframe for VTOL loads, but 3D printing was a wrinkle. - How I worked it out is a hard question. But it was being focused with design, flight testing and troubleshooting. LLMs, Youtube, forums, etc for help when needed. - Building in public helped paradoxically. It actually saves me time to build in public because of the motivation boost that helps me move faster and to share progress sooner. Even though there's a higher lift to document and share.

Thanks and yes I'm glad you say that. Would love to see it. It's hard to convey how much faster and better your work will be if you are actually passionate about it.

Great question! I don't think there's any sub $5k VTOL you can just buy COTS that can get close to 3 hours of range. Also, nothing is as plug and play as DJI. If you're motivated enough to do a little DIY and learn how to use Ardupilot or PX4 (easier), you can buy a kit like the Heewing T2 VTOL and assemble yourself. But I don't think that will do more than two hours flight time, even with a similarly high energy density battery pack to what I used.

Thank you!

Still tba if/what I open source

It's great, check out the Slo Mo guys video from that same tour for the prop smoke vortex https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yaAFLpLmVg