VEHICLE

Injection-moulded manufacture used for the smallest drones is not an option for vehicles at this scale, and some projects even revert to timber to minimise the cost of iterations.

The materials used from the outset with the experimental types of TELEDRONE has been riveted aluminium sections and sheet, along with foam core. It provides a means of rapid prototyping whilst drawing on conventional aviation practise for purposes of inspection.

Lower and upper drones are a conventional 'H' layout too, and a patented arrangement of motors ~ with the uppermost inverted ~ offers maximum ground-stability and a most compact foot-print, with the basic structure just 36 by 48 inches.

Each of the six-kilowatt motors drives a 32 inch propeller, arranged so that the airframe can be flown facing in any direction and with various options for the fitment of skids. This largely protects the lower propellers during take off and landing, whilst the protection is enhanced by arresting the lowest propellers in alignment with the skids.

This is consistent with overall safety, where each drone is ultimately independent and so capable of supporting continued flight in the event of a total failure of the other device.

The battery-packs are fixed to trays on the decks provided by the centre-body of each of the quads, separated from the inhabitant to reduce the hazards of fire.

Control of the proof-of-concept prototype is conventional, using a remote controller from the ground or in the air, configured for a standard X-8 mode of operation.

Ultimately the beta-product is aimed at the flat-pack and home-delivery market, under Part 103 rules which require neither a pilot license nor a medical. Such a product aims not so much at kit-constructors, as to IKEA home-builders with a penchant for flight.