Snowy Owl Plane

FPV plane with morphing wingtips for 3-axis control.

Description

FPV plane with morphing wingtips for 3-axis control.

Development Log

  • 2022-11-17 — Snowy owl plane maiden flight in strong wind 17.11.22 — The first test flight without stabilization showed that the plane was much too difficult to control because of inherent instability, however by proper programming of INAV flightcontroller, the maiden flight went successful, even though the wind was disrupting it very much. unfortunately the storage of my camera was full and didnt record the whole flight. Stabilization was programmed in order that differential thrust would react on YAW as well as on ROLL axis, because the plane does not have ailerons, but because the wings have IN-WASH twist a yaw movement will quickly result in ROLL. Wingspan: 1500mm material: Pichler superboard (elastic foam) Weight: 370g (without battery) Seravos: 2x MG90S with metal gear Receiver: FrSky XM+ Flightcontroller: Wing FC10 with INAV motors: 2x 1811 brushless motor ESC: 2x 12A Vgood Battery: 2-4S lipo (testflight with 1500mah 4S lipo, despite 10 minute flight it drained only 15% hence this plane can probably fly more than 1hour, even more in less troubled wind)
  • 2022-11-20 — [uncut] FPV Snowy Owl Plane Testflights 19.11.22 — Wingspan: 1500mm Material: Pichler superboard (elastic foam) Weight: 370g (without battery) Seravos: 2x MG90S with metal gear Receiver: FrSky XM+ Flightcontroller: Wing FC10 with INAV motors: 2x 1811 brushless motor ESC: 2x 12A Vgood Battery: 4S 1300mah lipo Camera: Hawkeye firefly 4K splitcam VTX: jhemcu vtx30-800
  • 2022-11-27 — [uncut] FPV Snowy Owl Plane Testflight 27.11.22 — More Testflight footage of snowy owl plane. The PID is very difficult to tune because the plane doesnt have ailerons, and differential thrust is used to assist ROLL movement, which results in a feedback loop and swaying. Wingspan: 1500mm Material: Pichler superboard (elastic foam) Weight: 370g (without battery) Seravos: 2x MG90S with metal gear Flightcontroller: Wing FC10 with INAV motors: 2x 1811 brushless motor ESC: 2x 12A Vgood Battery: 4S 850mah lipo Camera: Hawkeye firefly 4K splitcam VTX: jhemcu vtx30-800
  • 2022-11-29 — [uncut] FPV snowy Owl Plane TestFlight and range test 28.11.22 — PID and mixing was adjusted that differential thrust wasn’t handling ROLL , by this the roll-yaw feedback interference was less likely to happen, but controllability at high angles of attack more difficult. Wingspan: 1500mm Material: Pichler superboard (elastic foam) Weight: 370g (without battery) Seravos: 2x MG90S with metal gear Receiver: FrSky XM+ Flightcontroller: Wing FC10 with INAV motors: 2x 1811 brushless motor ESC: 2x 12A Vgood Battery: 4S 1300mah lipo Camera: Hawkeye firefly 4K splitcam VTX: jhemcu vtx30-800
  • 2022-12-01 — [uncut] FPV snowy owl plane range test ii 29.11.22 — Wingspan: 1500mm Material: Pichler superboard (elastic foam) Weight: 370g (without battery) Seravos: 2x MG90S with metal gear Receiver: FrSky XM+ Flightcontroller: Wing FC10 with INAV motors: 2x 1811 brushless motor ESC: 2x 12A Vgood Battery: 4S 1500mah lipo Camera: Hawkeye firefly 4K splitcam VTX: jhemcu vtx30-800
  • 2022-12-04 — [uncut] FPV SnowyOwl Testflight range test iii to ravenstonefield bridge 01.12.22
  • 2022-12-05 — [uncut] FPV Snowy Owl Plane Evening Flight with Third Person Camera 04.12.2022
  • 2023-03-18 — FPV SnowyOwl Test Flights — some random footage of FPV TestFlights from dec 2022 to march 2023 Music: Out of the Burrow (and into the Air), Black Cherry Aphids Entomongaku II – Chypho https://chypho.bandcamp.com/album/entomongaku-ii
  • 2023-03-31 — Snowy owl plane with new wing tip control test 30.03.23 — I added new servos on the wings for morphing the wingtips and create adverse YAW (which is stronger on FWS wings). I set the controls to help stabilize all axes: pitch (wing tip rearside going down creates pitch up, like on a canard), roll (wingtip up means its going down slightly), yaw (wingtip up means this side accelerating , because more air is let into the wing). the wing tip control is very natural for forward swept wings because wing tips are stalling first, and also stalling safely, by manipulating only the wingtip, one side will stall either later either earlier. by stalling the lift is lost, and replaced by drag, this makes very efficient turning possible, where the slower wing has more lift. the differential thrust impact on ROLL because air is blown under the wing which helps it rise, also the inverted vtail has a strong effect on ROLL , but sometimes I still had difficulties to steer the plane without extreme roll maneuvers, therefore I think this improvement has perfected the plane. in the following testflight I set the pitch PID lower because it was a bit oscillitatin, but maybe too low, because it was reacting slow, also I used a too small battery therefore CG was too much aft, but the wing tip control system works fine, the plane is more elegant, has more lift and behaves generally even more stable having more control authority on all axes.

Tagged as #plane, #snowy owl, #fpv, #morphing-wing, #animatronic, #flying-machine.