MotoPhan Dual Pan/Tilt Fan Concept Flying Jet Motorcycle

VAALLEON

Active member
This is my attempt to come up with a better flying motorcycle design than what’s out there. I am a long-time motorcycle rider, mostly high-performance sport bikes. I know the joy of leaning into a turn and the limitless acceleration. This is the only design that I know which can move forward without tilting and can lean while turning, which will make a real aerial motorcycle riding experience possible.

The first couple of flights have been a little eventful, with a major crash. So, I replaced the ECSs which I believe caused the problem and re-tested today. I am keeping it low and close to make sure it can sustain a longer flight before taking it around the park. Looks very stable despite some wind.

I can move forward and back with differential thrust using the pitch stick. The fan tilt is controlled by the 5th channel. That will act like the clutch of a normal motorcycle, initiating a forward move without tilting the unit, making the awesome turns possible.

There will also be an aerodynamic addition to the design, after I get a chance to fly it faster and understand the areas to support.

 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Man I don't know how you do it. most of the designs you come up with look like they should never be able to fly yet you get then to do so well. I am amazed you have not been snatched up by a toy company or government agency to design things for them by now.

You get that set up to fly like a sport bike rides and put FPV on it that could be the next thing in racing if you can get the speeds up to where quads are flying these days. Put a cool Tron like body on it so it can do rolling take offs or assist in turns on a track instead of tumbling like a quad and you may have something special.
 

Morgan

Active member
Man I don't know how you do it. most of the designs you come up with look like they should never be able to fly yet you get then to do so well. I am amazed you have not been snatched up by a toy company or government agency to design things for them by now.

You get that set up to fly like a sport bike rides and put FPV on it that could be the next thing in racing if you can get the speeds up to where quads are flying these days. Put a cool Tron like body on it so it can do rolling take offs or assist in turns on a track instead of tumbling like a quad and you may have something special.
You put into words everything I didn't !!☺
 

VAALLEON

Active member
Man I don't know how you do it. most of the designs you come up with look like they should never be able to fly yet you get then to do so well. I am amazed you have not been snatched up by a toy company or government agency to design things for them by now.

You get that set up to fly like a sport bike rides and put FPV on it that could be the next thing in racing if you can get the speeds up to where quads are flying these days. Put a cool Tron like body on it so it can do rolling take offs or assist in turns on a track instead of tumbling like a quad and you may have something special.

Thank you sir!!! I appreciate all the support and you guys following and giving me this amazing support. This is literally what keeps me going. Maybe it is better that no one wanted this stuff yet. Maybe I can start my own company and we can build fly/crash every single day, all day long. haha!!!

I agree with your comments. It is a funky design... It can do wheelies! It will be frigging fast. I am working on the exterior design. I think it will be pretty cool. Also I need to add some lift in the aerodynamics... Building up the confidence flying the unit. Check this video that I will post in a couple of minutes.
 

VAALLEON

Active member
A faster flight as I build my confidence in the unit and the design. Some higher speed passes at the second half of the video and even some wheelies (I tilt the fans forward and pull the pitch stick back. The unit lifts the head up and does a wheelie). I am not even tilting the fans one third of the range yet. Exciting stuff:)


 

VAALLEON

Active member
05/27/18

I had a nasty crash after the last video. My guess is that the receiver lost signal resulting from the thick carbon fiber frame. So, replaced the RX and with a better long antenna one.

Testing the new aerodynamics. The first design didn’t work out. So, I decided to go with my first instinct (which I ignored before) and changed the design. This design should minimize the impact of the crosswind.

Successful test. The unit feels pretty stable when I tilt the rotors forward. Definitely slowed down, as a portion of the speed is being converted to upforce.

Things to work on: 1- The fans are not tilting in 100% synch caused by the design. Will need to work on that. 2- The added surfaces reduced the hovering stability. I will need to work on the PID again.

05/28/18

More crashes, more lessons learned.

1-When rear fan tilts too much the battery/canopy combination is cutting the airflow to the fan and the unit stalls. So, I made changes to tilt the front fan more and the rear fan less. I may cut the back of the canopy if needed or add a structure to direct the air to the fan intake at higher speeds.

2-Played with PID to fix the hovering stability and the fan tilt speeds.

3-Changed the design of servo/fan connections for added strength.

I still need to mount the tilt servos sturdier to handle the forces in the flight better. More work to do. Just wishing no more crashes.

The aerodynamics work. The unit slowed down and I can feel the lift. It leans into the turn by itself when I apply yaw (no roll input). Now I need to revise the tilt servo mounts and get it to higher speeds.

 

VAALLEON

Active member
The new MotoPhan maiden flight after the old unit got destroyed a couple of months ago as a result of a malfunction during the flight. The new unit is much lighter and a design flaw of the old unit which caused the tilt servos to be under load at all times was fixed by moving the tilt axis to the fan axis.

Another change is the thrust vectoring method, which is done by two carbon fiber blades under the fans in the new design. They seem to work pretty good. The main challenge with the new design will be aerodynamics, to be more specific, installing aerodynamic surfaces that move with the thrust vectoring and tilting mechanism.

I am expecting this unit to be more reliable and to have a longer flight time.

Thanks

 

VAALLEON

Active member
Turned out really good. This is the second flight. It likes leaning in to the turns just like a motorcycle. The center of gravity being way higher than the thrust vectoring axis, just like a motorcycles center of gravity being much higher than the wheel axis.

I tilted the fans once during the flight but it got too fast too quick and I was at the small section of the park so I went back to normal flying.

I am open to suggestions on how to cover this machine to look the best it can.

Thanks

 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Flat carbon sheeting on the sides for aerodynamics and to keep that stealth look. Maybe get fancy and shape a silouette of a rider on the top side.

Then 4 programmable led after burner rings to simulate the wheels of a tron light cycle.
 

VAALLEON

Active member
Flat carbon sheeting on the sides for aerodynamics and to keep that stealth look. Maybe get fancy and shape a silouette of a rider on the top side.

Then 4 programmable led after burner rings to simulate the wheels of a tron light cycle.
Hey Bud! Just saw this... Yes, that would be a cool look. There can be many things done with this. I started building the Ducati Zero look.

I looked for some superbike body shells that may fit the fuselage but couldn’t find anything reasonably priced. So, decided to build it my own. I am going with Ducati Zero Theme. I got the body shaped and wanted to do a flight test before going any further, to see the aerodynamic impact and get a sense of the looks. I am glad I did as the body had a significant negative impact on the yaw stability. It is quite a windy day but I wouldn’t expect this much of an impact. I will need to figure this out… Regardless, still flies and looks good.

 

d8veh

Elite member
That thing is simply awesome. I take my hat off to you sir. It looks like something straight out of the old science fiction movies that we never expected ever to become reality. You should be working for Apple, Google or similar on their next generation autonomous vehicles. Hopefully, they'll see your vids and send you an offer. I wish you the best of luck in the future with this project.

PS. I hope you've instructed a good patent lawyer!