Tail Sitter VTOL - C.9 Maelstrom (original design)

[Air-headed Aviator]

I've been looking for the time and chance for long time to design and build a XFY Pogo like airplane, and now I have it! The goal is simple, build a plane that can take off from its tail and land on its tail....okay, maybe not SIMPLE, but I ma do it. I actually already have a design to try out, cut out the templates today. (see below vvv)



The plane will essentially look like a dumbed down Pogo.
It will have a 25 inch wingspan, 4 channel controls. elevon mixing, and be swappable! I'm hoping for a flight characteristic similar to that of a 3D flyer, having plenty of power and agility to move, while still being stable in a hover. Through this thread I hope to see where this plane can go! Now enjoy a photo of the Pogo in flight

 

[PsyBorg]

Ahh yes this was one of the planes I suggested to JimCR120 when he asked for Navy planes for the competition before he joined up with Gryfyer. Was also on my short list before I teamed up with Rockyboy again.

 

[Air-headed Aviator]

Parts Ready! Now for Glue!

Got all the parts cut today and now I just need to glue em together!



Geeze thats a tall stack of endplates



The business of the build, the wing



Dynamic Angle!



I'll probably not build it tonight, maybe tomorrow, or maybe I'll just post the final construction tomorrow.
Video as well is planned!....but later.....

 

[JimCR120]

Yup this was one I was considering and thinking what it would be like to take of and land and transition.

I'm looking forward to your posts on this.

 

[Air-headed Aviator]

Fuse is about done!

So I decided to just go ahead and glue up at least the fuselage, I mean I had the parts, they were cut out, lets just do it right?

This is what I have finished so far.



Here you can easily see the Kfm-4 airfoil that I opted for the simple and light airplane. Now as it sits its not exactly perfectly level (plus the wing isn't "perfectly straight on") but its favorable enough for a prototype.

I have other photos of building but at the moment of the post its a little late (zzzz...zzzz) So I might post them later or just leave them for the article. Won't be long now till the maiden (and eventual crash, redesign, crash, redesign,...)

It'll be Great!

 

[PsyBorg]

Yup this was one I was considering and thinking what it would be like to take of and land and transition.

I'm looking forward to your posts on this.

I would think it would be more like a rocket launch and you would feel all astronaughty.

Not a bad start crooked or not. Like you said this IS a process and will take more then one renditions to perfect. Keep up the good efforts mate.

 

[Air-headed Aviator]

Prototype Done!



A short run down on the design -

>Swept wings with a Kfm4 airfoil for symmetrical lift right side up or down
>Cruciform tail for stable tail sitting
>Delta wing configuration (cause so far the only successful version of and TS VTOL is such)
>Swappable motor, but in a custom "short pod"
>only uses 3 servos!

There were still some cosmetic things I wanted to add, but as of now the plane is essentially flight ready, and I'm ready to try it out for a maiden!*

(*side note this is the first time in a year that I would have two aircraft capable of flight!)

 

[rockyboy]

Fingers crossed for a good maiden flight! (either that it all works, or that you learn stuff from it :black_eyed: )

So are you going to enter this (or something else) into the WW2 challenge or not?

Yeah, it might have technically been started a little bit after WW2, but hey - it's a very cool project and we'd all love to see it fly and have plans available to the community!

 

[slembcke]

Oh that's really cool looking. Have you had a chance to fly it yet? Does it work without electronic stabilization? I was musing to make something that is basically a rocket with a motor on top. This kind of reminds me of that.

I've been working on making a tail sitter wing like the x-vert, but it definitely needs a flight controller to fly it in hover mode.
http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?36637-Mini-tail-sitter-VTOL-wing&highlight=vert

 

[Mish]

I have been thinking of building similar plane. I was thinking of using hobby eagle a3 6axis gyro. It has auto hover mode. Just need to make sure it cancontroll the rudder with ailerons. Are you using any gyros and do you have a video flying?

 

[Ricci]

That's cool!

 

[Rex227c]

Prototype Done!

View attachment 91841 View attachment 91842

A short run down on the design -

>Swept wings with a Kfm4 airfoil for symmetrical lift right side up or down
>Cruciform tail for stable tail sitting
>Delta wing configuration (cause so far the only successful version of and TS VTOL is such)
>Swappable motor, but in a custom "short pod"
>only uses 3 servos!

There were still some cosmetic things I wanted to add, but as of now the plane is essentially flight ready, and I'm ready to try it out for a maiden!*

(*side note this is the first time in a year that I would have two aircraft capable of flight!)

Will there be plans?