What a beautiful video - Incredible engineering, clear explanations, and a father son project. Doesn't get much better than that! Great work both of you, a well deserved record.
Think i found my new favorite channel. Having in depth technical description and great prodcution is rare nowadays, great to see the design process, would never have thought to test aerodynamics out of a window haha. Keep making videos this good, and analysis this engaging.
Small drones are practically undetectable and inescapable at much more conservative speeds anyway. Being cheap, easy, high range and having resilience to jamming would be more important than 500kph+ speed.
Been slightly obsessing about this cool thing so here's some calcs for interest's sake: If we look at the power consumption at 360km/h (100m/s) which is 5091We, assuming about 85% motor efficiency and 55% propeller efficiency we arrive at drag force of 23.8N. This can be reduced to a CdA figure of around 0.00396. Eyeballing the design section area of 150mm x 120mm gives us an A of 0.018m^2 yielding a drag coefficient (Cd) of about 0.22 or approximately that of a Tesla Model 3. This is kind of impressive except that it has no wheels, wheel arches or tyres which are one of the dominant forms of drag on a road vehicle so it suggests that there's at least some room and probably plenty for improvement. Also, at max speed of 510km/h we're starting to see compressibility effects being over Mach 0.4 in linear speed so there's no doubt that the propeller blades are well into the transonic flow regime so the 55% propeller efficiency above may be an overestimate. To make any appreciable gains in the record speed these problems will only be exacerbated. Time to get busy with area ruling and possibly ducted fans to improve the total aero efficiency. I also note there is appreciable voltage sag at the high speed run dropping down to 34V. This means that, for an assumed 12S system voltage of 44.4V nominal, there's about 2kW of power disappearing into the wiring as heat. (235A at 10V sag > 2kW). While motors are to some extent immune from increasing voltage from an efficiency perspective, the rest of the electrical system surely isn't, so bumping the voltage higher is only going to be a win, albeit with safety complications.
@@matthewbarnard461 Some of it is, for sure, but it depends on how and where the voltage is measured. Also it's still I²R losses which is just turning battery power into heat so increasing system voltage can only but reduce this inefficiency.
Thanks I value the concern 😊 and your comment. It more case of with youtube getting 3.7mill new videos uploaded each day that it really takes a lot to stand out above all that noise. But after a couple of years doing this I think this video is going to give me the catapult boost I have been waiting for. The subscribe rate on this video and type of story has gone nuts and is super high which is fantastic recognition for my efforts.
This is AMAZING! Congrats on the accomplishment… a good thing that you documented everything, which is a great thing to do in engineering. Great job once again!
From someone who can barely make a paper aeroplane, this is fascinating. Watching the design evolve to optimise the aerodynamics, airflow, and centre of gravity is amazing. It must have been so rewarding seeing it achieve such crazy speeds 😄
I feel almost vindicated seeing someone else do their rapid drone prototyping in Blender, and especially your line that; "Success is achieving both excellence in performance, and esthetics" is something I've cought a lot of heat over from the pure CAD guys. Amazing work all-round!
This is a very interesting take! I feel like engineering/product design is to often teached to go from a sketched based 2D straight into hard and traditionel software such as solidworks/ siemens NX surfacing tool of what ever is used. Blender could be this perfect in the middel. It's abusrd to think about the hours i've seen friends, colleageas including myself put into interrating very complex surface models just modifying splines and addapting surfacecontinuity. The best thing is I have blender installed a couple of months ago exact for this reason but do not seem to find the time or motivaction tot get into it. I this video shows exactly why I should.
Awesome design, execution and performance, Mike Your Bambu printer may be able to print STEP files, which will behave like very fine mesh STL files, although that depends on the slicer. Great to see South Africans setting records. Netjies gedaan.
Dankie. Flippin lekker om SA bietjie te showcase. Blender doesnt work with STEP files unfortunately but it is perfect for the animation I make and it makes fantastic drone designs too.
Yup, Bambu Studio does support STEP. That's my go-to format when working with designs that have tight tolerances. Plus they're much easier for others to reverse-engineer.
9:15 "The software generates these elegantly sculpted streamline curves." I am sure you've discussed this elsewhere, I've yet to see your other videos, but what software did you use here?
Thanks. I am a retired architect and have an Autocad Sketchup Revit Lumion background so Blender is a natural follow on. My primary need is animation so Blender is a must. Besides Blender is fantastic software. It can do pretty much all things 3d. What is your field/ software?
Are there any blender Addons you use to help model it? I have blender for a few years since 8th grade but I still find it extremely difficult to do things like this that involve precise measurements and parameters. Also, was all of the design done in blender? Or dis you also use other programs like cad or other things to help. Thank you! For instance, how did you model things like the camera tilt adjustment? Also, during the part of the video where you showed the short clip of modeling the NACA duct, how were you doing that? What was the greyed out shape you were manipulating? Was it just a boolean or was it something else that i don’t know about?
Yes all modelling and design was done in Blender. I dont use special add-ons. I find the overall dimensions of an object useful for sizing and scaling. And you can set up a special axis for non orthogonal modelling. And you can move and scale inputing numbers. The NACA duct was modelled with booleans.
My university drone team may be attempting this record next fall. Been doing some research, and I want to commend your component selection! It's been really hard finding any configuration that performs higher in thrust simulations.
Maybe tow steered composites and custom aerostructurally optimized geometry of frame and motors for v4? In my experience, ADFLOW is a lot faster and more accurate than airshaper and it can do shape optimization
very, very cool! how are you doing the control mixing? i.e. converting from torque commands to motor thrusts? if by any chance you have a mixer that outputs something like 95% of max thrust + some small differential consisting of roll/pitch/yaw components -- there is something better! using a QP solver you can find the thrust commands giving max forward thrust while still satisfying torque inputs. for such small problems the solution can be found in fractions of a millisecond, even on tiny processors. If you haven't yet done so this might get you another couple kph! get in touch if you wanna know more, i have done something extremely similar at work :)
its simply the mixer in betaflight. there will always be a small loss of power as the pid controller with airmode enabled can only be active and stabilize the quad if it dials back from full throttle on at least one of the motors. this is why its most efficient to make the quad as aerodynamic as possible at the angle of attack its going to fly at and a good tune. since the drone doesnt fly completely straight forward but very slightly tilted up any drag on the body will push the body up and the pid controller will cut power to the bottom motors to compensate.
This has absolutely blown me away in terms of how effective your designing and surfacing was of v2 without doing aero computation. Eagerly awaiting v3!
Having read Hoerner's Fluid Dynamic Drag, it seems to me that your nose tip radius is a bit too sharp for speeds close to mach 0.5 or 0.6. Forward visibility of the camera in the nose would also be improved with a larger radius in the tip of the nose. I have been working with owners of race cars and sport aircraft for 40 years helping them learn aerodynamics for performance in competition.
Well done guys, this is awesome to have local guys pushing the limits like this, very inspiring! Did you ever consider running CFD on the model, and do you think that would have helped the design direction?
Thanks Mike. Up till this point the level of technology is such that big gains have been possible through iterative exploration. But from here on the gains will become smaller and harder to achieve and require more sophisticated optimisations and we are running wind tunnel simulations for further speed improvements. And we have product manufacturers who are interested in supplying us with optimised components to go faster. If you have CFD skills I would be interested to know how you would approach this.
Awesome project! Looks like a fun one. Curious if you have done the math for what impact a carbon fiber exterior (or any alternative) could have on weight. The shell sure looks pretty light already.
The low hanging fruit development areas are still batteries and aerodynamics so thats the next version. And interestingly induced drag is near negligible at 500. You pay the price of weight in battery drain and manoeuvring. The angle of attack of 1 degree is all you need for body lift. It’s basically a wingless VTOL. I’ll be explaining this in the next video. So weight savings will increase speed because of a longer speed boost but not induced drag savings. Weight will get serious attention in version 4🤣 And when we get serious competition. 🤙🏻
In general, the idea of such a device is not new,🤷♂️ it was already there, but you guys have brought the project to a really working fast state!👍 Thanks !
I just built my first vertical frame and it flew away on me, it might be because my props are so close together as you were saying. Fascinating to hear more construction detail and the problems you had with your escs. also how you made your camera/nosecone and airshaper fascinating thanks a lot!
Hey, I remember this guy called me on the phone a few years ago for consulting about blender. How you doing Mike? This is seriously cool. I grew up without a father because he was assassinated when I was 2, so I never had this kind of interaction, and even though I'm an amazing engineer I have simply never had access to the tools, space, or resources required to carry out this kind of experiment. To me, you guys are like ultra-rich. You are like infinitely richer than me. We are different classes of human. That's why I am a designer. Pencils are cheap. I have made countless models for other people to 3D print, but they will profit because I can only afford the tools to make the models, but they own the printers, and I will simply never have enough money to own my own printer.
Hey Tom. I cant say I remember talking to a Tom 🤔 do you go by another name? And for the record I also grew up without a father which is why I treasure my sons all the more.
@@Mike-Bell You called me on the phone after my blender tutorial went viral to inquire about Blender consultation, and I gave you a figure that I assume was too high, and you never contacted me again. I'm 100% sure it was you, I might still have your number. I know because I remember your name, voice, and videos. Do you realize what you have made? you've made the next weapon for the Russia Ukraine drone war and you gave the designs to the world for free.
Hey Tom oh yes I found your channel. I remember you. Are you still working for the architecture related company? Don’t let lack of tools define your potential. Your creativity is a powerful tool that many would be envious of.
@@Mike-Bell My father was assassinated when I was 2 and I was accused of Sexual Assault in Cape Town while running two popular comedy shows even though I'm completely innocent. It does not matter how intelligent or talented I am. I have been told since birth that I'm a genius capable of anything. My father was also a genius. It doesn't matter. I live under fascism. There is a boot on my face. I'm telling you, we are different classes of human. I will forever been seen as a crazy person despite the fact that I repeatedly prove myself to be in the top 0.01% for intelligence. I'm telling you I have no power, because I was born a criminal.
@@TommyLikeTom Hi Tom, I'm really sorry to hear about your difficult start in life. Your story is heart-wrenching. However, given your intelligence, you'll understand that dwelling on self-pity can trap you in a cycle that hinders progress and success. Stephen Fry articulates this sentiment beautifully. ruclips.net/video/r_2kelqYz_o/видео.htmlsi=dZcWIaX_HwLWtfQ_
in your next design, you can double the amount of motors. 8 instead of 4, same design for the core, space for the battery in the center. 4 more motors on top, feeding the bottom motors, or turn them all 4 45 degrees as to not interfere with the bottom 4 motors. the flight time might be halved, but the speed might increase :) you could make it perfectly symmetrical, modular even, adding more and more motors in a line, even the battery compartment could be modular.
@Mike-Bell do you think you could possibly do a video (or just describe in general here in a comment) on how you go about setting up Blender for precise (down to the millimeter) modeling? How do you go about setting up the environment, did you use any specific Blender add-on's?
This is something I always thought I would need to learn a specific CAD software for, but you've achieved amazing results in Blender. I'd love to know your process in Blender, or if you would consider making any Blender tutorial videos for engineering and design? Amazing work!!!
The object size can be typed into the xyz object size. In decimal millimetres if neccesary. You can draw a cube and rotate it to any angle. Select the cube and in Transform Orientations to the left of Snap make a new transformation axis to snap to. Its no harder than CAD. Just a different way to achieve the same result. loads of tutorials on RUclips for any topic you need help with. And Blender has fanstatic animation features which are essential for my videos.
Ugh, I'm a licensed fpv pilot I can't stand people like that they shouldn't have been flying anywhere near you. Fortunately you weren't injured but it's careless people like that who get this hobby regulated amd destroyed
ruclips.net/video/pMyBIaH2P34/видео.htmlsi=FZ-ve-SWy0g1-xPh What you and your son have done is amazing. We will be doing our best to copy your design. Even if we could get 200 km an hour that would serve our purpose for our efforts in Europe. Thank you.
10/10 Stunning achievement for both of you , and being able to keep it "in the family" and have FUN together as well as keep on learning , innovating and supporting is Mega Brilliant, Well Done
Did you use Aluminium or Copper Cables? Aluminium cables win over copper in Ampere/Weight, little bit thicker but lighter per Ampere. Airplane do not use it because of (galvanic) corrosion over long time (piper did use it in the 70s).
Only at the end did I realize I watched the entire video with my jaws open!!! I don't fly my collections. They are for display and drooling over. If it possible to get the STL or STEP files to build one for my collection?
I have to say I found the Bamboo awful for prototyping. From gcode to first layer it's about 10 minutes, expect days of work if tinkering with bed temp.
i might be giving away a fortune here... consider what drag is... what the slipstream behind you is... its air that has had momentum imparted to it by colliding with you, the body and flight surfaces, and being accelerated. you get this gust of air that chases behind you at about half the speed. and as it impacts more air it all comes to a halt eventually, disposing of energy... none of that has any effect upon you, other than the air that HITS YOU and is deflected. it takes work to push it out of the way. ok, cool. the air that is deflected to produce lift will always have a certain amount of drag associated with it, and cant be avoided. erm... "induced drag"? your props, wings, controls... here, the props. so ignore the backwash of the props now, its dirty and turbulent but its the source of thrust and lift. its the necessary induced drag. whereas the air that is bashed out the way by struts and bumps and the like is parasitic, makes no contributions, and only saps power. the more air you bash out the way, the more slipstream you make. the slipstream isnt drag itself, its the result of having drag. a sign that energy was being dissipated... some as lift/thrust, the rest is just drag, or power taken to move air out of the way... so. coanda effect. rather than use it to produce lift, that idea doesnt work... use it to encapsulate the fuselage in a layer of high speed air to ISOLATE it. an EDF feeding into a cowl at the very nose... that air always takes a certain amount of work to accelerate. it will cling to the surface and isolate it from the stationary atmosphere. no thrust or extra force, other than that produced by the EDF, but "negating" parasitic drags... that is, you only work on accelerating that layer of air. what it does, after leaving the nozzle, has no effect on the vehicle... but it can impart its energy upon stationary air so that YOU dont have to... its the outer layer of air you accelerated that gets slowed down as it impacts the stationary atmosphere. it doesnt work on a plane as most of the drag is from the wing. induced. but here, where the fuselage is just holding props in a certain orientation? the less parasitic the better...
LOL. We had a full recording of the airport anemometer for the duration of the speedruns which was part of the data submitted to Guinness. The wind had died down a small amount for flight 4. But the upwind flight was flight 3 and just 2kts less than the downwind flight. The Guinness rule is the 2 runs to be within 1 hour of each other. All good.
I find it interesting the designs of some of the fastest planes resemble a birds form, and the worlds fastest drone's body resembles a fish. In the future I've always imagined advanced spacecraft closely resembling bugs 🤔
Hello Mike I think the British m o d should be made aware of this. Sadly We live in darkening times. I would like to think this little beauty or a modified version of it, is on the side of the good guys.
Why not mount the speed controllers side ways on the motor arms, then they can be blended into the surface that connects the motor shrouds to the main body. Small naca ducts can then be used on each of the blended arm sections
Beautifully told story. I really enjoyed that. Coming from the country of my birth was a nice bonus. I couldn't help but admire the beautiful location zinging by in some of those shots. You must be so proud of your son. What a bright future he has. I feel like this is just the beginning of the drone age. All the best and thank you for sharing.
This is amazing! Is there any chance you would be comfortable publishing the designs so that others might be able to create it, or perhaps sell some kind of kit? I think people (myself included) would probably pay a good deal of money for something like this
![☀ Высота 10КМ+! Это РЕКОРД!! Невероятная высота на квадрокоптере. [Miniquad World Record Alt 10KM]](/img/1.gif)
The very idea of 9000W motor/battery power in a product that small is just absurd. Amazing work!
Its absolutely insane. I built fast drones myself but never Had anything over 4500W
Better to fly fast to cool it!
So you decided to take on Red Bull and crush them, what a badass the both of you are!
It's a totally different system. This drone can not stay flying as long as red bulls drone.
@@grampafpvthe speed record has nothing to do with flight time
Redbulls drone was never about getting a top speed world record? 2 different drones for 2 different purposes
@TinyBearTim read the comment I replied to.. keep up bro..🙅♂️
@@grampafpv I think it can fly 7km at 350phh so it could in theory track the red bull car although the camera probably isn’t as good
What a beautiful video - Incredible engineering, clear explanations, and a father son project. Doesn't get much better than that! Great work both of you, a well deserved record.
Thank you very much!
... love your channel 👌
what a amazing project, and this being done by a father and son just adds to how awesome it's wish you best of luck on your future projects
The amp draw and ability of those batteries to discharge that fast is insane.
Sure is. Next version 200c batteries straight from the factory.
Tanks in Ukraine watching nervously 🫣
You are actually digusting
Helicopters too
Think i found my new favorite channel. Having in depth technical description and great prodcution is rare nowadays, great to see the design process, would never have thought to test aerodynamics out of a window haha. Keep making videos this good, and analysis this engaging.
Wow, thanks! 🤩 more good stuff to come
@@Mike-Bell what is that 3d software? great video !
@@kay834 I use Blender. Open source and free
@@Mike-Bell My mind is bent at just how skillful you are with Blender, that alone is award worthy.
@@sUASNews thanks 🤩
I had a very uncomforable laugh at 12 hp in a 10" frame.
The US Department of Defense is going to be giving this video a good number of views i think
Ukraine is here first 😏
That was my first thought, The military application is very obvious.
Small drones are practically undetectable and inescapable at much more conservative speeds anyway. Being cheap, easy, high range and having resilience to jamming would be more important than 500kph+ speed.
@@putrid.p Against stationary targets, yes. However, this high velocity drone could also be effective against helicopters and some planes.
@@2MeterLP no, because you forgot the payload.
It is more like a rocket. It can be a good weapon but not for camera.
Been slightly obsessing about this cool thing so here's some calcs for interest's sake:
If we look at the power consumption at 360km/h (100m/s) which is 5091We, assuming about 85% motor efficiency and 55% propeller efficiency we arrive at drag force of 23.8N. This can be reduced to a CdA figure of around 0.00396. Eyeballing the design section area of 150mm x 120mm gives us an A of 0.018m^2 yielding a drag coefficient (Cd) of about 0.22 or approximately that of a Tesla Model 3. This is kind of impressive except that it has no wheels, wheel arches or tyres which are one of the dominant forms of drag on a road vehicle so it suggests that there's at least some room and probably plenty for improvement.
Also, at max speed of 510km/h we're starting to see compressibility effects being over Mach 0.4 in linear speed so there's no doubt that the propeller blades are well into the transonic flow regime so the 55% propeller efficiency above may be an overestimate. To make any appreciable gains in the record speed these problems will only be exacerbated. Time to get busy with area ruling and possibly ducted fans to improve the total aero efficiency.
I also note there is appreciable voltage sag at the high speed run dropping down to 34V. This means that, for an assumed 12S system voltage of 44.4V nominal, there's about 2kW of power disappearing into the wiring as heat. (235A at 10V sag > 2kW). While motors are to some extent immune from increasing voltage from an efficiency perspective, the rest of the electrical system surely isn't, so bumping the voltage higher is only going to be a win, albeit with safety complications.
The voltage drop of the battery is due to the internal resistance of the cells
@@matthewbarnard461 Some of it is, for sure, but it depends on how and where the voltage is measured. Also it's still I²R losses which is just turning battery power into heat so increasing system voltage can only but reduce this inefficiency.
I ran a sim and came to the conclusion its 28.67 newtons of drag at 140m/s, which gives it a Cd value of 0.172
The left handed guy who uses a shorty pencil is the guy you should worry about.
😂
😂 😂
Amazing video, Mike. So insightful!
Glad you think so!
i’m confused? just 24k views and 61.2k subscribers? for this level of production? truly underrated!!!
Thanks I value the concern 😊 and your comment.
It more case of with youtube getting 3.7mill new videos uploaded each day that it really takes a lot to stand out above all that noise. But after a couple of years doing this I think this video is going to give me the catapult boost I have been waiting for. The subscribe rate on this video and type of story has gone nuts and is super high which is fantastic recognition for my efforts.
Totally agree!!!
This aged like milk
Congrats to you and your son on breaking the record!
Thanks!! 😃
This is AMAZING! Congrats on the accomplishment… a good thing that you documented everything, which is a great thing to do in engineering. Great job once again!
Thank you so much!! 😃
no one tells you the drawbacks of being an engineer.
i have zero interest in drones or drone technology and yet....
air squid go brrrrrrrrrr!
Air squid yay!!!😂😂😂
From someone who can barely make a paper aeroplane, this is fascinating. Watching the design evolve to optimise the aerodynamics, airflow, and centre of gravity is amazing. It must have been so rewarding seeing it achieve such crazy speeds 😄
Glad you enjoyed it! 😃
Now that's what's engineering is all about. 🎉❤
congratulations To you and your Son
Thanks ☺️ always nice to get a comment from you
I feel almost vindicated seeing someone else do their rapid drone prototyping in Blender, and especially your line that; "Success is achieving both excellence in performance, and esthetics" is something I've cought a lot of heat over from the pure CAD guys.
Amazing work all-round!
This is a very interesting take! I feel like engineering/product design is to often teached to go from a sketched based 2D straight into hard and traditionel software such as solidworks/ siemens NX surfacing tool of what ever is used. Blender could be this perfect in the middel. It's abusrd to think about the hours i've seen friends, colleageas including myself put into interrating very complex surface models just modifying splines and addapting surfacecontinuity. The best thing is I have blender installed a couple of months ago exact for this reason but do not seem to find the time or motivaction tot get into it. I this video shows exactly why I should.
That's more of an argument to CAD designers needing a background in graphic design than it is for Blender being the better tool.
Awesome design, execution and performance, Mike
Your Bambu printer may be able to print STEP files, which will behave like very fine mesh STL files, although that depends on the slicer.
Great to see South Africans setting records. Netjies gedaan.
Dankie. Flippin lekker om SA bietjie te showcase. Blender doesnt work with STEP files unfortunately but it is perfect for the animation I make and it makes fantastic drone designs too.
Yup, Bambu Studio does support STEP. That's my go-to format when working with designs that have tight tolerances. Plus they're much easier for others to reverse-engineer.
@@Mike-BellYeah, Blender works exclusively with meshes. STEP is for CAD.
What CAD program do you use in addition to Blender? Great work and dankie for sharing.@@pseudotasuki
@@cs9260 Autodesk Fusion.
9:15 "The software generates these elegantly sculpted streamline curves." I am sure you've discussed this elsewhere, I've yet to see your other videos, but what software did you use here?
I use Blender. Great for this design project and amazing for animations. Enjoy the rest of my content.
Wow. Amazing entineering and really well presented. Congratulations and thank you for sharing.
Thank you very much!
This is an amazing video, thanks very much for creating it. Comgratulations to you both from KZN
The shot in the dark with the LED on made it all so much cooler, that is quite beautiful.
I loved your previous video's but this is something else. Love it, you are amazing.
Glad you like them!
bro took away wings from redbull, without the millions of dollars redbull has you guys still did it
Learning breakdowns from you is awesome, please keep making more!
We will!
NEXT TARGET: Mach .5
= 617.4 kilometers per hour
or
383.634574 miles per hour
Yes 😃
you should have displayed g force on the OSD because its interesting to see
Great idea. It would be v interesting
they build a working ufo thats crazy!!!
The fastest father/son duo on RUclips! And in the world! Congrats! Love your work.
Thanks! 😃
Congrats. Cool, great design. Could I ask, why have you used Blender for CAD modeling and not smth. specific?
Thanks. I am a retired architect and have an Autocad Sketchup Revit Lumion background so Blender is a natural follow on. My primary need is animation so Blender is a must. Besides Blender is fantastic software. It can do pretty much all things 3d.
What is your field/ software?
"🎙️🔔"
Ok that's really good lol
I'm glad you got it. I'm not sure everyone does 😂
Are there any blender Addons you use to help model it? I have blender for a few years since 8th grade but I still find it extremely difficult to do things like this that involve precise measurements and parameters. Also, was all of the design done in blender? Or dis you also use other programs like cad or other things to help. Thank you!
For instance, how did you model things like the camera tilt adjustment? Also, during the part of the video where you showed the short clip of modeling the NACA duct, how were you doing that? What was the greyed out shape you were manipulating? Was it just a boolean or was it something else that i don’t know about?
Yes all modelling and design was done in Blender. I dont use special add-ons. I find the overall dimensions of an object useful for sizing and scaling. And you can set up a special axis for non orthogonal modelling. And you can move and scale inputing numbers. The NACA duct was modelled with booleans.
Sir, F1 wants to know your location.
My university drone team may be attempting this record next fall. Been doing some research, and I want to commend your component selection! It's been really hard finding any configuration that performs higher in thrust simulations.
Luke and I will follow your progress if you post the outcome online
Maybe tow steered composites and custom aerostructurally optimized geometry of frame and motors for v4? In my experience, ADFLOW is a lot faster and more accurate than airshaper and it can do shape optimization
very, very cool!
how are you doing the control mixing? i.e. converting from torque commands to motor thrusts?
if by any chance you have a mixer that outputs something like 95% of max thrust + some small differential consisting of roll/pitch/yaw components -- there is something better! using a QP solver you can find the thrust commands giving max forward thrust while still satisfying torque inputs. for such small problems the solution can be found in fractions of a millisecond, even on tiny processors. If you haven't yet done so this might get you another couple kph! get in touch if you wanna know more, i have done something extremely similar at work :)
its simply the mixer in betaflight. there will always be a small loss of power as the pid controller with airmode enabled can only be active and stabilize the quad if it dials back from full throttle on at least one of the motors. this is why its most efficient to make the quad as aerodynamic as possible at the angle of attack its going to fly at and a good tune. since the drone doesnt fly completely straight forward but very slightly tilted up any drag on the body will push the body up and the pid controller will cut power to the bottom motors to compensate.
Same as tesla
This has absolutely blown me away in terms of how effective your designing and surfacing was of v2 without doing aero computation.
Eagerly awaiting v3!
Man get that thing to Ukraine
Were you only using DJI’s (GPS-based) speed calculation or did you also have something like a handheld radar gun?
Having read Hoerner's Fluid Dynamic Drag, it seems to me that your nose tip radius is a bit too sharp for speeds close to mach 0.5 or 0.6. Forward visibility of the camera in the nose would also be improved with a larger radius in the tip of the nose. I have been working with owners of race cars and sport aircraft for 40 years helping them learn aerodynamics for performance in competition.
Awesome video! I particularly enjoy the animations. Well done Luke and Mike - dream team 💪
Thanks so much!
Incredible! Would like this video 100x if I could
Thanks! Looking forward to your speed attempt.
Well done guys, this is awesome to have local guys pushing the limits like this, very inspiring! Did you ever consider running CFD on the model, and do you think that would have helped the design direction?
Thanks Mike. Up till this point the level of technology is such that big gains have been possible through iterative exploration. But from here on the gains will become smaller and harder to achieve and require more sophisticated optimisations and we are running wind tunnel simulations for further speed improvements. And we have product manufacturers who are interested in supplying us with optimised components to go faster.
If you have CFD skills I would be interested to know how you would approach this.
I can see Ratheon taking notes... Brilliant execution, spooky possibilities on the budget 🫡
Awesome project! Looks like a fun one. Curious if you have done the math for what impact a carbon fiber exterior (or any alternative) could have on weight. The shell sure looks pretty light already.
The low hanging fruit development areas are still batteries and aerodynamics so thats the next version. And interestingly induced drag is near negligible at 500. You pay the price of weight in battery drain and manoeuvring. The angle of attack of 1 degree is all you need for body lift. It’s basically a wingless VTOL. I’ll be explaining this in the next video.
So weight savings will increase speed because of a longer speed boost but not induced drag savings.
Weight will get serious attention in version 4🤣
And when we get serious competition. 🤙🏻
In general, the idea of such a device is not new,🤷♂️ it was already there, but you guys have brought the project to a really working fast state!👍 Thanks !
nobody said this was a new idea
absolutely amazing. loved the use of Blender, this has so much in it... look forward to seeing more!
Thanks a ton!
Masterclass! I’m your newest subscriber and bravo! Excellence of art, spirit and intuitive innovative engineering! 👍🏻✌🏻
Thanks. Welcome aboard
I just built my first vertical frame and it flew away on me, it might be because my props are so close together as you were saying. Fascinating to hear more construction detail and the problems you had with your escs. also how you made your camera/nosecone and airshaper fascinating thanks a lot!
What's the range / max flight time of this thing? 🙂
Range is currently 7.5km and 120seconds. Thats all the batteries can do.
@@Mike-Bell Still impressive. 💪
You should sell it to the military ;))
Here before this blows up. What am amazing feat of engineering, so glad to be here!
"Ukraine would like to know your location."
This is amazing! It's great to know, that you have used Blender to 3d model this incredible creation 😆
Bro putting out a LiPo battery with his bare hands 😅😅😅
I know!! Africans are tough 😂
Actually it was an ESC burning
Thank you for sharing your family project. Great video. I hope it inspires more father/son projects.
More to come!
We are proud of you, Iranian pilot❤
As an FPV pilot for many years, this gave me chills. Inspired!
That accent is from home the's no mistaking it
Fantastic. Do you share somewhere your Blender file?
Interesting project 👍did you try spinners on the props to decrease drag even more?
perhaps on version 3
Hey, I remember this guy called me on the phone a few years ago for consulting about blender. How you doing Mike?
This is seriously cool.
I grew up without a father because he was assassinated when I was 2, so I never had this kind of interaction, and even though I'm an amazing engineer I have simply never had access to the tools, space, or resources required to carry out this kind of experiment. To me, you guys are like ultra-rich. You are like infinitely richer than me. We are different classes of human. That's why I am a designer. Pencils are cheap. I have made countless models for other people to 3D print, but they will profit because I can only afford the tools to make the models, but they own the printers, and I will simply never have enough money to own my own printer.
Hey Tom. I cant say I remember talking to a Tom 🤔 do you go by another name?
And for the record I also grew up without a father which is why I treasure my sons all the more.
@@Mike-Bell You called me on the phone after my blender tutorial went viral to inquire about Blender consultation, and I gave you a figure that I assume was too high, and you never contacted me again. I'm 100% sure it was you, I might still have your number. I know because I remember your name, voice, and videos.
Do you realize what you have made? you've made the next weapon for the Russia Ukraine drone war and you gave the designs to the world for free.
Hey Tom oh yes I found your channel. I remember you.
Are you still working for the architecture related company?
Don’t let lack of tools define your potential. Your creativity is a powerful tool that many would be envious of.
@@Mike-Bell My father was assassinated when I was 2 and I was accused of Sexual Assault in Cape Town while running two popular comedy shows even though I'm completely innocent. It does not matter how intelligent or talented I am. I have been told since birth that I'm a genius capable of anything. My father was also a genius. It doesn't matter. I live under fascism. There is a boot on my face. I'm telling you, we are different classes of human. I will forever been seen as a crazy person despite the fact that I repeatedly prove myself to be in the top 0.01% for intelligence. I'm telling you I have no power, because I was born a criminal.
@@TommyLikeTom Hi Tom, I'm really sorry to hear about your difficult start in life. Your story is heart-wrenching. However, given your intelligence, you'll understand that dwelling on self-pity can trap you in a cycle that hinders progress and success. Stephen Fry articulates this sentiment beautifully. ruclips.net/video/r_2kelqYz_o/видео.htmlsi=dZcWIaX_HwLWtfQ_
in your next design, you can double the amount of motors. 8 instead of 4, same design for the core, space for the battery in the center. 4 more motors on top, feeding the bottom motors, or turn them all 4 45 degrees as to not interfere with the bottom 4 motors. the flight time might be halved, but the speed might increase :) you could make it perfectly symmetrical, modular even, adding more and more motors in a line, even the battery compartment could be modular.
@Mike-Bell do you think you could possibly do a video (or just describe in general here in a comment) on how you go about setting up Blender for precise (down to the millimeter) modeling? How do you go about setting up the environment, did you use any specific Blender add-on's?
This is something I always thought I would need to learn a specific CAD software for, but you've achieved amazing results in Blender. I'd love to know your process in Blender, or if you would consider making any Blender tutorial videos for engineering and design? Amazing work!!!
The object size can be typed into the xyz object size. In decimal millimetres if neccesary.
You can draw a cube and rotate it to any angle. Select the cube and in Transform Orientations to the left of Snap make a new transformation axis to snap to. Its no harder than CAD. Just a different way to achieve the same result. loads of tutorials on RUclips for any topic you need help with. And Blender has fanstatic animation features which are essential for my videos.
Ugh, I'm a licensed fpv pilot I can't stand people like that they shouldn't have been flying anywhere near you. Fortunately you weren't injured but it's careless people like that who get this hobby regulated amd destroyed
ruclips.net/video/pMyBIaH2P34/видео.htmlsi=FZ-ve-SWy0g1-xPh
What you and your son have done is amazing. We will be doing our best to copy your design. Even if we could get 200 km an hour that would serve our purpose for our efforts in Europe. Thank you.
Thật điên cuồng! 510km/h. In 3d, khoa học, kỹ thuật và công nghệ vật liệu.
Amazing results! Is it possible to reach 250 km/h without rocket-shape frame?
Awesome!
Amazing to see the use of Blender for design! Open Source FTW!
What OS you are using? Just curious...
I think this is a fantastic design shape. I would be proud to have a giant one in my yard
10/10 Stunning achievement for both of you , and being able to keep it "in the family" and have FUN together as well as keep on learning , innovating and supporting is Mega Brilliant, Well Done
Thank you! Will do!
Interesting to hear the perspective on Bambu Labs from a non-3d printing focussed hobbyist
This blew me away! Is the 3d model accesable to public?
Did you use Aluminium or Copper Cables? Aluminium cables win over copper in Ampere/Weight, little bit thicker but lighter per Ampere. Airplane do not use it because of (galvanic) corrosion over long time (piper did use it in the 70s).
Wonderful design, explanation and experience. So well deserved.
Thank you very much!
Only at the end did I realize I watched the entire video with my jaws open!!!
I don't fly my collections. They are for display and drooling over.
If it possible to get the STL or STEP files to build one for my collection?
My brother chased some world records himself in RC planes, to quote him: If you can reuse your batteries you're not drawing enough amps.
Amazing video, this was a joy to watch!
So glad! and your comment is a joy to see 😊
I have to say I found the Bamboo awful for prototyping. From gcode to first layer it's about 10 minutes, expect days of work if tinkering with bed temp.
i might be giving away a fortune here...
consider what drag is... what the slipstream behind you is...
its air that has had momentum imparted to it by colliding with you, the body and flight surfaces, and being accelerated. you get this gust of air that chases behind you at about half the speed. and as it impacts more air it all comes to a halt eventually, disposing of energy... none of that has any effect upon you, other than the air that HITS YOU and is deflected. it takes work to push it out of the way.
ok, cool.
the air that is deflected to produce lift will always have a certain amount of drag associated with it, and cant be avoided. erm... "induced drag"? your props, wings, controls...
here, the props. so ignore the backwash of the props now, its dirty and turbulent but its the source of thrust and lift. its the necessary induced drag.
whereas the air that is bashed out the way by struts and bumps and the like is parasitic, makes no contributions, and only saps power. the more air you bash out the way, the more slipstream you make. the slipstream isnt drag itself, its the result of having drag. a sign that energy was being dissipated... some as lift/thrust, the rest is just drag, or power taken to move air out of the way...
so. coanda effect. rather than use it to produce lift, that idea doesnt work... use it to encapsulate the fuselage in a layer of high speed air to ISOLATE it. an EDF feeding into a cowl at the very nose... that air always takes a certain amount of work to accelerate. it will cling to the surface and isolate it from the stationary atmosphere.
no thrust or extra force, other than that produced by the EDF, but "negating" parasitic drags...
that is, you only work on accelerating that layer of air. what it does, after leaving the nozzle, has no effect on the vehicle... but it can impart its energy upon stationary air so that YOU dont have to... its the outer layer of air you accelerated that gets slowed down as it impacts the stationary atmosphere.
it doesnt work on a plane as most of the drag is from the wing. induced. but here, where the fuselage is just holding props in a certain orientation? the less parasitic the better...
Blender, EdgeTX, Betaflight, ELRS? Guiness record for most open source pipeline :P pitty about DJI
Pretty clever to wait until the winds naturally calm down after dusk to make the upwind second flight. 😉
LOL. We had a full recording of the airport anemometer for the duration of the speedruns which was part of the data submitted to Guinness. The wind had died down a small amount for flight 4. But the upwind flight was flight 3 and just 2kts less than the downwind flight. The Guinness rule is the 2 runs to be within 1 hour of each other. All good.
So why not a co-axial design tucked behind the mainbody?
Well then it is no longer a quadcopter ie 4 props and a control via props only. A coaxial design would require aerodynamic control surfaces.
@@Mike-Bell Would still be a drone and a helicopter as the title says.
Brilliant gentlemen, you should be very proud of each other, great team! When are you planning a supersonic version?😁
Thank you for sharing this detailed and impressive video. It gives such a beautiful insight into the whole project & engineering that went into it.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Congratulations Mike! Very good work!
Can I repeat your record with Peregreen 3?
I find it interesting the designs of some of the fastest planes resemble a birds form, and the worlds fastest drone's body resembles a fish. In the future I've always imagined advanced spacecraft closely resembling bugs 🤔
Love the observation. Maybe future versions will have fish names.
picked that resembles of a fish as well
I was hoping that he'll mention how he purposely chose the fish design and flew with it
Pun intended 😊
What advanced CAD program they use for complex aerodynamic shapes? - Blender ; )
Hello Mike I think the British m o d should be made aware of this. Sadly We live in darkening times. I would like to think this little beauty or a modified version of it, is on the side of the good guys.
Why not mount the speed controllers side ways on the motor arms, then they can be blended into the surface that connects the motor shrouds to the main body. Small naca ducts can then be used on each of the blended arm sections
Nice idea but it would enlarge the fairings and body skin friction a lot and at these speeds drag avoidance is a central aim.
I do wonder, how much do those batteries cost and how many cycles do you put on them? Amazing engineering!
Beautifully told story. I really enjoyed that. Coming from the country of my birth was a nice bonus. I couldn't help but admire the beautiful location zinging by in some of those shots. You must be so proud of your son. What a bright future he has. I feel like this is just the beginning of the drone age. All the best and thank you for sharing.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great work! Congratulations for world record 👏
One small suggestion, its too round at the top, it needs to be pointy 😂
This is amazing! Is there any chance you would be comfortable publishing the designs so that others might be able to create it, or perhaps sell some kind of kit? I think people (myself included) would probably pay a good deal of money for something like this
No it would irresponsible. People shouldn’t be building this sort of thing 😛
Custom ESCs? Might cost a lot though but that might allow for putting them in the arms and increase efficiency
You are the luckiest father alive. What a blessing to work together with the son.
And a son! Living their best live moments:)
Awesome father and son collaboration 🇿🇦🇿🇦
I have a question could you build an tictac shaped drone which has slightly smaller Propeller