MQ-9 Reaper

Hi guys!
It´s been a while since i´ve postet something.
In the last months i build several Flying wings but they all crashed:oops:
Now i´m trying to build a little reaper drone and when it flys i´ll add a camera and maybe an autopilot.
So let´s get to it.
My goals are to make a Fibreglass body and some hotwired wings.
First I started with a 3D model on my computer and i took some Squaresections from it.

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I then had to draw it down by hand because the program i use had some problems with creating .stl files so i couldn´t print it out in the right proportions.

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I then glued together a balsa block and shaped it so in the end i´ll be able to make a silicone mold from it.

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I still have to use lots of sparckle on it so i can get it smooth and ready to make a mold from it.
The stabilizers are just made from some 5mm balsa and I dont want any servos to be on the outside so i build in some steel wires which will go into the fuselage.

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For the wings i printed out some Clark-Y profiles and tranfered them to a 1mm thick peace of balsa.
I first thought that the cutting would be verry dificult but it turned out to be pretty easy.

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I know it looks pretty rough but its fine for me and i´ll fill up the deep grooves with some lightweight sparcle.
Everything together almost looks like a reaper drone.

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For the electronics im using a Nano 5G BL motor from Pitchler and a random 12A ESC i had from one of the flying wings.

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All in all it worked out pretty smooth yet so i´ve actually got some confidence that it´ll work but well see how it turnes out.
 

TooJung2Die

Master member
Interesting build so far. I don't know why there aren't more Predator and Reaper scale models. They seem like a natural for FPV. I saw one of the first Predator prototypes flying at Indian Springs AFB, Nevada. The engineers were very happy to give me a tour and talk about the project. It had a modified snowmobile engine. One of them described it as, "a five million dollar model airplane". The design started as an unarmed reconnaissance UAV.
 

TooJung2Die

Master member
Didn´t the first prototype actualy start out as an RC plane?
Yes if you can call satellite radio RC. They still fly the Reaper and Predator out of Nevada. The drones flying in the Middle East are piloted from Indian Springs, NV about 45 miles NW of Las Vegas. How's that for range? Now it's called Creech AFB.
 
Well, as far as i know the ones used in the middle east are pilotet from Ramstein AFB in Germany. Thats because you can´t use low orbit satellites to reach the middle east from the USA and the lag of a geostationary (ore several low orbit satellites) would make the drones unusable.
But the range is still enormous.
Anyway my model doesn´t need to have that much of a range and i definately don´t want to use it like the real MQ9 at all so i think i´ll stick to my 2.4GHz system:unsure:.
 

Spitfire76

Well-known member
I know the last post was a couple of years ago but what about a foam board version of this plane?. I guess the challenge would be to make the high aspect ratio wings strong enough out of foam board. On the other hand I did find these foam board plans for the Predator which I believe was a predecessor to the Reaper.

https://www.rcfoamfighters.net/ff-predator
 
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Spitfire76

Well-known member
Any luck on this?
No, I now have several other projects in the works and the one closest to this would be
https://www.eclipson-airplanes.com/e-vtol-1
I have most of the airframe printed but what's taking up most of my time these days is the "HangarRC build-off challenge" and instead of a high tech drone I am designing and building a WW1 plane. I have also entered it for the "Dawn Patrol" challenge.
 

ergomir

Junior Member
Hi, i was following this thread for a while now.
recently i started my Own MQ9 REAPER , i wonder how the model of this thread performs in the end.
I will let you guys with some pics of my project.

Almost all the build was made at live in my Youtube channel if you wanna see some more.
 

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JFC24

New member
Well, as far as i know the ones used in the middle east are pilotet from Ramstein AFB in Germany. Thats because you can´t use low orbit satellites to reach the middle east from the USA and the lag of a geostationary (ore several low orbit satellites) would make the drones unusable.
But the range is still enormous.
Anyway my model doesn´t need to have that much of a range and i definately don´t want to use it like the real MQ9 at all so i think i´ll stick to my 2.4GHz system:unsure:.
Back in 2013 when I was flying unmanned in Afghanistan the Reapers were flown from Creech and handed off to a LRT in country. On the other side of the world the delay was less than 1.2 seconds via SATCOM.

If you decide to start a GOFUNDME for Estes powered (but inert) Hellfires, count me in.