colinhilton: Open Frame Modification

Prior setting up for testing, a duplicate of the 6' cat featured here with the buoyant side-panels omitted. Though it only reduces the weight of the (motor-less) chassis from 12 to 10.5 pounds, it does provide for the option to fit panels afterward to support higher payloads. It also simplifies construction, with pontoons able to be made from plastic or carbon-fiber tubes joined by stock connectors and assembled in minutes. Though the centre-deck now provides for most of the buoyancy, all the materials here besides the motors remain less dense than water. The deck has therefore been returned to the mid-point, so that only the outermost propeller arc is submerged at the get-go. The background incidentally is fortuitous, with the drone designed to be a transitional platform able to traverse ice, snow and wetlands besides planing on water.

Posted by: colinhilton - website: https://www.teledrone.com