X Craft Review

We were fortunate enough to test one of the first X Craft X Plus One aircraft, a hybrid tailsitter-type VTOL featured on Shark Tank.The X Craft needed some assembly, and Peter pieced it together in about 30 minutes. The radio was also not set up, so Peter had to program it.

The aircraft comes with decals already on the airframe and is made with fairly rigid foam. The X Craft also features APM technology.
The X Craft doesn’t have traditional control surfaces. It starts in flight by hovering like a quadcopter, then when you flip a switch on the radio, it transitions to a VTOL and controls like an airplane.The aircraft uses a lot of off-the-shelf technology like Multistar ESCs, suppo style motors and Turnigy parts, and it comes with a budget radio that was a letdown considering the price of the aircraft.The GoPro mount only had a single gimbal, so we had to pick which direction we wanted the camera to face (which could make FPV difficult). Small movements are also reflected in the footage, making it shaky.

Despite a hover that drifted a lot, the X Craft flew respectably after the switch to the VTOL. However the lack of control surfaces made it difficult to fly. Peter tried to flip back to hover mode but it ended in a crash. There wasn’t too much damage, but the bottom pylon did come loose. We made some repairs, then tested it again. The forward flight didn’t work very well, the aircraft crashed pretty quickly after Josh took off.

The good notes on the X Craft were that it had illustrated instructions, it was easy to put together, the hover worked well and it looks really cool. On the flip side, the aircraft came with zero programming, forward flight was difficult and the aircraft was susceptible to winds.

Thanks to X Craft for letting us review their prototype!
Share your X Craft flight experiences and hacks with us in the comments below, on Facebook or in an article!

LINKS TO X CRAFT MANUALS AND RESOURCES BELOW: