Semi-rigid RC airship

A rough (very rough, sorry 'bout that) video of the first flights of my new 5-foot long semi-rigid hybrid RC dirigible. As I was controlling it, somebody else had to use the camera, and I realized too late that it was set to the lower resolution :/ bugger... I hope to get better videos shot and uploaded soon.A word about the aircraft itself: The envelope length is about 5 feet (~1.5m), and the volume is about 6 cu ft (170 liters). The envelope (balloon) is composed of aluminum laminated polyamide film (aka. balloon foil).All the other stuff (RC gear and the like) are attached to a balsa-carbon fiber keel girder, which in turn is tied to the balloon itself. This gives the craft great stability even if the gas filling was incomplete. The power system offers vectorable thrust to aid in take-offs and landings.The airship is completely scratch built. I built the envelope, the keel and the other structural components myself, and number of electronics are also homebuilt. I estimate it took some 500-1000 hours total to build it. hard to say, I started the project two years ago, but built it only now and then... The craft will receive some updates in the following days. I will probably also take some new videos, and a bit better & sharper this time :)

Channel: Science & Technology
Uploaded: April 24, 2008 at 11:22 am
Author: Cernwrech

Length: 01:03
Rating: 4.00
Views: 1193

Tags: Airship  Aviation  balloon  blimp  dirigible  RC  RC-blimp  

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