New Member Introduction: Seeking Insights on Drone Frames

Hi Everyone,

I’m new here, so I wanted to introduce myself and ask a quick question about what the FPV community is really looking for in drone frames and materials.

By way of background: I’ve spent much of this year testing drones in Ukraine, mainly to support their Armed Forces. Before that, my company (FAC Technology aka "FACT") designed the Five33 Ludicrous airframe using a composite material I originally developed. The lessons from that project later fed into kamikaze and other combat drone designs.

I’m no longer CEO of FACT, but I’m now looking at starting a new company focused on manufacturing composites specifically optimized for quadcopters, with production based in Ukraine. Right now, these materials can’t be exported but when that changes, Ukraine’s low energy and labour costs plus Europe’s strong composite supply chain could make for a very competitive setup but it will still be slightly more expensive than Chinese made carbon fibre composite per unit of mass or volume but the material will be stiffer so less of it will be needed and it will shift the natural frequencies of a given airframe higher as a result so should fly better (this gets more noticeable as the drones get bigger).

What I’d love to know from this community is:

👉 Would people be interested in premium composites for airframes with higher damage resistance (measured by interlaminar fracture energies G1c and G2c) and higher stiffness-to-weight ratios tuned to the principle load directions of a quadcopter?

I’d really appreciate any feedback on what matters most to you in terms of frame performance and material choice.

Thanks,

Alex

PS I also wrote and then delivered half of the lecture course on composite materials at Imperial College for five years and got my former company approved by the Civil Aviation Authority as an Aerospace Design Organisation. You can see a 15" Ghost Squadron Leader (the smallest of this range) developed under my time as Head of Design (as well as CEO) flying here: Ghosts of The Few; Ghost Squadron Leader demonstration

👋 2

hoverfish

54 W (bearbeitet 54 W)

that's a lot of big words but i can say this:

stronger and lighter frame = good

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@nother_fella2

54 W

Autor

Unfortunately the materials will come with a downside vs Chinese made composites that are mostly used in FPV drones; price. The Ludicrous airframe was incredibly expensive because they were manufactured in London and had a huge amount of investment in the development of the material too. Making composites for drones in Ukraine will be a lot cheaper than the UK (let alone London!) and the material properties will be far better than what Chinese companies can achieve but its going to be impossible to compete with them on a cost per unit volume or mass basis; its only going to be viable if pilots value performance... which we seem to do or we would be flying fibreglass or aluminium drones. On the other hand, the laminates that are used by all the drone companies are basic woven laminates with very simple epoxy resin systems; the sort of tech that was used in F1 about fifty years ago so far very far from cutting edge.

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@nother_fella2

54 W

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New Member Introduction: Seeking Insights on Drone Frames

Hi Everyone,

I’m new here, so I wanted to introduce myself and ask a quick question about what the FPV community is really looking for in drone frames and materials.

What I’d love to know from this community is:

I’d really appreciate any feedback on what matters most to you in terms of frame performance and material choice.

Thanks,

Alex

👋 2

hoverfish

54 W (bearbeitet 54 W)

that's a lot of big words but i can say this:

stronger and lighter frame = good

Antworten

@nother_fella2

54 W

Autor

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