Hirobo/Northrup MQ-8c
Joe B.
Fuselage Do-dads
With the mechanics pretty much set up and test hovered (in the back yard only), I am satisfied it will fly fine. I wasn't able to get the PC links straight up and down without the anti rotation link interfering with one of them. I will keep looking for an anti rotation setup that is more straight up and down and not so offset. I am thinking of printing my own link out of PETG-CF but will defer for now.
I started making some of the antennas that are on the MQ-8. I drew the nose antenna in Fusion 360 and 3d printed it along with several other blade antennas. I have also printed new Tiplets for the horizontal stab, but, they warped a bit from being taken off the bed too soon and not fully cooled. The FLIR turret will be the biggest project I think. That may take several tries.
The scoops, pressure refuel and gravity fuel ports will probably be made with styrene sheet. I used a lot of it on the Lama build and it is fun to work with. Lastly, the landing gear will need some rework also.
In case you were wondering, yes this fuselage suffered a mishap and took the brunt of the damage to the nose. it has been repaired and is sound but looks like hell... hence all the filler.
6 Comments
Looking good, nice to see you were able to keep the clutch
Very nice work on the linkage and the head setup, clean wiring. Top job !
Joe, I notice that the rods going to the feathering spindles are angled. Are you not able to achieve good phasing with a more vertical orientation of the rods?
Hi Michael, I have been trying to get them more verticle and use the phasing in the 3x, but since I am trying to adapt this head to the Shuttle SWM swash plate, there is interference with the swash follower. When they are set as the picture shows, I need very little phasing in the 3x and there is no interference with the swash follower. It's a work in progress...
Joe,
This is a pretty cool project. Great you has a platform to use. I noticed the RADS camera up on the nose for inflight blade tracking. You must add that as well.
Great project,
Butch
I think that's part of the instrumentation package from test/eval. Other images don't have it. I have gotten the FLIR platform worked out, just need to figure out the FLIR itself. The challenge is that this is only a .30/550 size heli. The nose datalink antenna is only about 25mm tall.