4 ms·

I wonder if it could be even better and lighter with carbon fiber instead of basla wood.

• gillesjacobs 5y ago
  Carbon fiber is much more difficult to iterate on though. Using accessible and cheap materials is beneficial for adoption by hobbyists or other researcher.
• dotancohen 5y ago
  Probably not by much. Balsa wood is extremely light, cheap, and easy to form into a wing. It is also easily repairable. The real weight savings would probably come from the motor - and a carbon fiber casing might work here instead of the presumably steel casing currently in use. And though shaving weight off the wing would almost certainly move the center of mass further outwards, shaving the mass off the motor would move it further in. That might be detrimental, though, as the motor needs some leverage on the COM for this design. This is a terrific project that invalidates many traditional ideas that we have about flying machines.