PteroDynamics X-P4 Transwing® sizzle video

It's more complex than a regular tiltwing, which only requires one hinge. The advantage of this might be a smaller footprint on the ground. Not sure how valuable that is.

​@@freetrade8830 It looks like it only uses one hinge in the video as well

​@@freetrade8830 as Icesphere pointed out there's only one hinge angled at 45° inside the wing, seen briefly in the video. Additionally I guess tilting the wings backwards results in more VTOL stability, as the rotors form a square shape instead of a straight line (looking at the drone from above).

@@freetrade8830 This is still one hinge, it's just placed at a ~45° angle.

@@freetrade8830 It's only one hinge per wing and the original purpose of this design (it's copied from WW2 era Grumman aircraft but with the wing folded leading edge up instead of down) was indeed to reduce footprint for the carrier aircraft

JUST DO IT!

Ha! You are such a big kid Scott! LOL!!!

Sod KSB, I want a RC version to fly around my home lol

I went on the internet today, and I found this! 😂

They launder money well

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Boeing_V-22_Osprey

Almost all innovations are that. Putting ideas into practice, no matter how straightforward they might be, should never be underestimated. It needs to be done by someone, and if you are the first you deserve to be able to reap the rewards.

@@johnhopkins6260 The Osprey has many unstable regimes, that's why they crash so often when attempting a semi-aerobatic maneuver. A Quad copter would be much safer.

wonder why they have music playing, these are incredibly lound and will not be able to enter civilian airspace

It is small, but major change it has that extra angle of motion in the twisting of its wings. 1. It now has vertical thrust in each corner instead of all in a row. 2. It can now have full length wings without taking up a lot of space.

for sub scale field drones

@@elijahf111why this limit?

​@@elijahf111 I think it can be developed to be like the Osprey & Bell aircraft.

​@@ekadana1328 Osprey had decades of engineering hardships to iron out. The larger you go the more non-linearly expensive and difficult VTOL gets. The vortex issues, engine power, weight balance, reliability. That's just with 2 engines, imagine 4. There's a reason the osprey only tilts the engines and not the wings themselves like this.

I can see why it looks like the cg is moving but its not, thats the magic. Its able to move its wings like counter weights along its cg in such a way i assume it does not change. Differential thrust can help stabilize this. As i would like to see how it copes in windy conditions? If the cg changed its body would tilt fw or backw etc. Clever how it does it, but if there was a strong side wind is where differental thrust would be cruial.😊

What's up man I love your voice impressions dude and ur channel

Stable transition? I was just going to comment how glitchy and unstable the transition looked. The craft was bouncing fore and aft pretty intensely. I'm sure they will iron that out though. I do like the concept.

If this was scaled up, they would need some amazing material for the wing supports. Lot of stress during transition.

Who cares what you think.

​@@theobserver9131it doesn't need to be scaled up significantly though as it is intended as a drone. At this scale I am not sure of the need for VTOL though (possibly for package delivery drones).

Right

^^^

Keep in mind that in more advanced models the mechanism to articulate the wings could fit inside the wing itself... and by doing without the mechanism inside the fuselage they not only save weight, but also cargo volume.

@@animatek6171 That's true, assuming the actuators fit within the wings themselves also l. Otherwise you'd have the opposite affect.

@@animatek6171 ​ It is probably just a linear screw that draws the bars back in unison to unfold the wings; light weight and simple. This ensures the wings deploy in exact synchronicity and then the bars can act as a structural brace in concert with the pivot point. If it was all in the pivot points you would have to make them much stronger (i.e. heavier) while running the risk of the wings deploying out of sequence or one not at all.

Have you seen many? At back-transition it’s only an inch away from breaking apart…

@@steffenschaeuf6759 Metric, please.

There's a point in this vid where the gopro view gets shaky during transition

I can imagine how it might find use in package delivery, too.

jeepers, i just want this in a small FPV drone

Imagine 4 of these instead of the police helicopter. That should save some money

describe to me how this is more useful than the standard fixed wing UAVs we toss into the air with bungee slingshots every day? Unless the scale is enormous and it doubles as a sky crane, this is all just a dumpster full of money burning.

@@ZennExile it isn't. At least not yet. The venture capital for sUAS died out shortly after 107 came out due to FAA's overregulation. Then, UAM/UTM/AAM/EVTOL became the new buzzwords and more venture capital was thrown into the fire. Drone amplified is offering the most realistic use case for sUAS in firefighting by integrating EO/IR and paintballs filled with agent that allows setting of controlled burns remotely.

so like the v22 osprey? which was made over 30 years ago

@@thedandy6765 Not so much… On the Osprey the engines rotate, not the wings, not to mention a host of other differences. Aside from them both being vtol aircraft there’s not a lot of similarity on closer examination. The Osprey could best be characterised as a helicopter with wings! This has more the attributes of a “fixed wing” aircraft that can take of vertically.

@@robinhodgkinson actually the osprey also has wigns that turn but for storage purpose and the osprey could carry a humvee and troops and its technically both an airplane and helicopter cus it has to take off like a helicopter but can fly as a plane. i do feel like if theyh could enlarge that system for troop carry aswell it would be a very good vehicle since itll be in and out real quick like a normal helicopter but i can reacher higher top speeds. theres loads of uses for the new design and im wondering where itll go maybe even island hopping would be usefull

Its a drone the weight and difficulty of scaling the wing hinges is probably not viable to make it much larger.

@@jackdburyes its a whole new ball game at a bigger scale. Especially with much larger engines hanging off those wings.

i do like how the landing gear is the tips of the engine making it dual purpose and getting rid of the need for landing gear

Not true-- the props optimizsed for lifting and bad for cruising, and vice versa

Also.. motors for wing movement are dead weight

@@geegee101 well, true, but i meant in comparison to other VTOL designs

The pivoting of the wings is going t generate significant increases to both lift and drag. Its the equivalent of trying to from no flaps to full landing flaps while also activating a lifting fan and reversing your control inputs. It has to be one of the most difficult low-alt/low-speed flight regimes design for.

@@zj6074 Indeed - and the airflow is going to get very weird for a while. Interesting engineering challenges, but it sure looks like they have it under control - really impressive!

That is an acceptable amount of herky jerky for a prototype IMO! Just for fun I’d like to see it try with some wind shear to see how it fights.

Generally during transition you have both sets of cascade PIDs running simultaneously. The ones for fixed wing flight of which there are 3-4 per axis The ones for quadcopter flight of which again there are 3-4 per axis Then you blend the output of each together based on the current angle of the wing as it transitions. Tuning VTOLs in general is a lot of work as you said.

Looks like something they need to get a shitload of data for and test empirically in a myriad of conditions. Figuring that out probably requires close to rocket science.

This VSTOL configuration is possible because 1) no mechanical power transmission needed thus not interfere with wing pivoting ( power linkage for more than one rotor type) 2) unmanned vehicle so deleting all the human incorporating factors out. The folded position will obviously obstruct pilot's and passenger 's around view whether static or in helicopter flight mode. Somebody might think of it before but old technology and objective ( manned vehicle ) blocked them from implementation.

You are a liar. Prove that you are a "flight instructor". Liar.

Genious?

It’s beautiful

It looks neat, but it's probably way, way more cost effective to just use ICE engines lol. And getting this going with 4 ICE engines would be interesting..

Glad to see you here, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation

I'd dare say, we've less than 10 years the way the liberal hive mind is going. Population control by whatever means required is high on the agenda.

Why would AI hunt us down? AI is not capable of mining all the materials needed to make AI. Its not capable of plugging its own power cord back in when you trip over it. Keep in mind that humanity has never made an electronic technology that can survive 15 years before its integrated circuits start to degrade from quantum tunneling whereas human beings can live for 70 plus years with no maintenance, no spare parts and by eating stuff that sprouts from the dirt all by itself. Any AI smart enough to even comprehend that we exist and what we are would realize its entire existence is predicated on Human economic and productive activity. If anything AI would act to ensure our survival because without human beings needing to generate electricity, AI ceases to exist.

😂😂😂 funny but true

I don’t think it will be that long

Stop scaring people

As a non-planetary moon onion this is neat

Thanks for the kind words Drew. Out team worked very hard on this project. A lot of longs days spent testing in the hot desert sun, sweat cascading down ballsacks

As a genious overqualified for MENSA, this is esthetically a masterpiece in my eyes. LOL

wait till it drops bombs on some 3rd world arab country..

Same here!

Not very practical, I don't think it's good for battle, needs improvement. Fast blowing winds can rip it's wings apart.

@@blackpanthar906 Wonder if there will be comments from a troll gamer kid who is expert on aerodynamic structures? Oh, wait...

@@shazam6274 and that's coming from someone with a profile name of "shazam", real mature..

@@shazam6274 Know the difference between a prototype and a battle ready model first before you start talking nonsense.

@@blackpanthar906 You might want to check the spelling of "Panther"

Stealth it up and you've got one hell of a good drone or 'cruise missile.'

It should be possible to make the wings even longer - these wings seem short to me :/

@@InfiltrateIndustries not for it's weight

latest really cool aero engineered vehicle mustve been the v22 osprey

It looks simple but it isn't. The joint is more complicated since the wing has to rotate on two axis instead of just one and also the transition unstable. You can actually see the wobble when you go from lift from the wings to thrust from the motors. It doesn't matter for an unmanned drone and you can fix that with the right flight system but this method is not without its drawbacks. Best of luck to them.

Thought the same thing, but proposing a fifth "lifting-only" toroidal prop above the body to take "weight" off the hinges during transition may be an option. All the props should possibly be toroidal as well for an increase in speed, noise, and economy. I LOVE this thing.

what you'll say when this shit get into your window

They said better, not peaceful lol

Peace through superior firepower, bitches

glad I am not the only one perceiving it that way

Better for shareholders. lol. Orwell would be proud, maybe

With GPS data, it could be I a loop control, where the motor controllers adjust the speed of the propellers, to keep the set altitude.

My guess is that software modulates the rotary speed and increases it during the beginning of transition as some of the vertical thrust is converted to horizontal.

I wonder how difficult the transition back to landing is.

Constant prop speed is probably not how it does that.

You can design a control mechanism that can fix that. It would take quite a bit of tweaking. Not sure if they use some form of neural network, MPC, of just PID.

My thought exactly

I was thinking TBM Avenger

@@maker-matt Yes, TBM as well. It was a Grumman patented system.

@@danmallery9142 and since you bring up the patent. Grumman folding wing was leading edge down when folded back. This system is leading edge UP! (face palm... why didn't I think of that)

That's Grumman's Sto-Wing. It was also used for the E-1 Tracer and is still used for the E-2 Hawkeye and C-2A Greyhound.

Thanks so much, Tim!

i mean over 30 years ago they made the v22 osprey which does the exact same compact when folded fully which also didnt stall when transitioning

I take it you mean the forces pulling at the wing joints during the transition? If that's the case I'm not sure if this style of joint can be scaled up by much without astronomically increasing maintenance costs.. 😅

@@Squee7e It would probably at minimum have to be on par with the pivot mechanism of the F-14 Tomcat on a full-size aircraft in terms of robustness requirements, because not only does the functionality depend on mechanism action but the type of loading and stresses changes between flight modes.

Titanium.