Flying season 2016 is slowly coming to an end on northern hemisphere. That means less time spent on an airfield and more time spent behind a desk. For this autumn I've found a very interesting, small project: Dualcopter.

Dualcopter is an UAV with two coaxial contra-rotating propellers and 2 control surfaces driven by servos. Lift and yaw are controlled by propellers, while pitch and roll by ailerons placed below motors. This video illustrates how it looks like:

My Dualcopter will be slightly different. Instead of foam and wood I will use 3D printed parts connected together CA glue and zip ties. Maybe it will not be super strong and probably will not survive any crash, but should be enough to make it fly for a minute or so. Almost all parts would be either 3D printed or taken from spare box. I'm not planning any new purchases.

Planned specs:

  • Motors: Turnigy MT2213 935KV
  • Props: APC 1045 MR
  • ESC: Afro 20A
  • FC: Flip32 probably with INAV inside
  • Battery: 1300mAh 3S
  • Weight: around 800g with battery

dualcopter 1

So far, after 2 evenings I have this:

dualcopter 2

Two motors mounted on a frame.

Next step would be to build bottom section with ailerons and battery compartment.