Hey guys, I thought I'd I share my build experiences and plans of the "Queen Bee", a 150% scaled up version of the FT Super Bee with a lengthened wing. My goal was to trade some of the Super Bee's raw speed for a slower, but still very acrobatic, platform for aerial video and FPV.
Some differences from the Super Bee that I'll highlight include
For electronics: I went with Emax 1200KV motors (those sold in the the "B" power pack), 18A ESCs and a 2200MAh 3C battery.
Final project weight is about 680g without battery. Build time was 40 hours (I'm slow!) but that includes probably 20 hours of one-time design work.
Maiden flight video is here:
Some final assembly pics:
Some notes on the build:
I laid out the main wing on "Model Plane Foam". The foam board is 48" long so I had just enough room to make the wing in a single piece
I decided to redesign and laser cut the main fuselage and power pods. I used fusion 360 to design the parts. You can get the 3D models here:
http://a360.co/2sUxemV
http://a360.co/2sx4Ho1
The main body is made from depron. I laser cut the motor pods, fuselage and horizontal stabilizer.
I hand cut the vertical stabilizer because the laser cutter I have access to can only cut 12x24"
Electronics are essentially "B" power pack x2. I already had the ESCs wired for XT-30 so I made a simple XT-60 -> dual XT-30 "Y" cable.
Weight looked pretty good at 616g. The wheels I added added another 70 grams. The battery weighs 180g putting the plane at a total weight of 866g. With a wing area of ~ 478.5 sq inches the*wing loading is around 9 oz / sq ft. More importantly, wing cube loading is around 5 which puts us in the "trainer" category (source http://www.flyrc.com/wing-load-calculator/)
If you want to use any of my work as a starting point, this folder has the files I used:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B4Bmq2xe83WbUFpmLXA0MDRIWE0
Some differences from the Super Bee that I'll highlight include
- 150% scale with a lengthened wing for a 43.5 inch wingspan
- Use of "Model Plane Foam" and Depron instead of dollar tree foam
- Use of fiberglass drywall tape for stiffening the foam (inspired by https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eIPqCwHlnI)
- Use of Foam Tac glue instead of hot glue in most places
- Addition of landing wheels
- Laser cut plywood fuselage and motor pod sections
- Some CF reinforcement in the main wing and tail
For electronics: I went with Emax 1200KV motors (those sold in the the "B" power pack), 18A ESCs and a 2200MAh 3C battery.
Final project weight is about 680g without battery. Build time was 40 hours (I'm slow!) but that includes probably 20 hours of one-time design work.
Maiden flight video is here:
Some final assembly pics:
Some notes on the build:
I laid out the main wing on "Model Plane Foam". The foam board is 48" long so I had just enough room to make the wing in a single piece
I decided to redesign and laser cut the main fuselage and power pods. I used fusion 360 to design the parts. You can get the 3D models here:
http://a360.co/2sUxemV
http://a360.co/2sx4Ho1
The main body is made from depron. I laser cut the motor pods, fuselage and horizontal stabilizer.
I hand cut the vertical stabilizer because the laser cutter I have access to can only cut 12x24"
Electronics are essentially "B" power pack x2. I already had the ESCs wired for XT-30 so I made a simple XT-60 -> dual XT-30 "Y" cable.
Weight looked pretty good at 616g. The wheels I added added another 70 grams. The battery weighs 180g putting the plane at a total weight of 866g. With a wing area of ~ 478.5 sq inches the*wing loading is around 9 oz / sq ft. More importantly, wing cube loading is around 5 which puts us in the "trainer" category (source http://www.flyrc.com/wing-load-calculator/)
If you want to use any of my work as a starting point, this folder has the files I used:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B4Bmq2xe83WbUFpmLXA0MDRIWE0
