The Mantis V2 employes building techniques from Experimental Airlines and RCtestflite. I chose to build a twin boom pusher due to the flying tendancies and load capacity. You may have seen my previous designs including the Carbon B1 and B2 which are much larger than this aircraft.
Some specs:
30" wing span
30.5" total length
Main body is a 1"x2" tube with no taper
8" chord with a 4" step for the KmF airfoil
Aileron dimensions: 2"x7"
Tail Dimensions: 13.5"x6" with 1" control surface
Body length of 15"
Vertical stabilizer is 6" tapered to 3"
Booms made of carbon fiber arrow shafts
8x4 prop
2200mah 3 cell lipo
For electronics I am using an AX 2308N 1100kv brushless outrunner from Hobbyking. It is decent but takes a lot of balancing of the motor itself. The ESC is an SS series 18-20amp esc from hobbyking
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=30664
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=26495
And some pictures of the aircraft:
Notice that the 2.4ghz antennas are mounted in coffee straws and at an angle. This should increase the chances of the craft receiving a strong signal, even in a bank.
The inside is pretty empty, not a lot of wiring with only 3 servos. I plan on adding FPV gear to it and maybe some kind of bomb drop.
The motor is good but it has a lot of vibration to it. I'll be changing to a different motor in the future.
I covered parts with a tape used on automobiles and mailboxes. It has tiny prisms that reflect light back at the source. This way if I crash I can find it from the air or on the ground by pointing a flashlight at it.
If you have any questions feel free to ask! A flight video will be in a seperate article along with the bomb drop. Please rate and stay tuned!
-C
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I should have specified body vs overall
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Sadly you won't be seeing video as I crashed it after only 3 flights and it is not worth fixing. Because the Mantis is an ongoing project I tend to fly until I crash and then fix whatever caused the crash. Next version I just started on with a 60" glider wing to carry a 2200mah battery and my fpv gear. Cheers!
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Great thought about the reflective tape - definitely a head slap on that - "Why didn't I think of that?"
Of course, the main goal is to fly so well you render the tape redundant.
"Try to stay in the middle of the air. Do not go near the edges of it. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, trees and interstellar space. It is much more difficult to fly there."
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