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>Small drones carrying a load generally have a short range, which could make launching such an attack (and surviving the response) difficult. I understand why

>Small drones carrying a load generally have a short range, which could make launching such an attack (and surviving the response) difficult. I understand why such things are relatively rare, but its always sort of a wonder to me that fixed wing or tilt-rotor drones are not commonly suggested for deliveries of this kind. Obviously the flight plan is necessarily more complex when you have to have take-off and landing phases with horizontal components (which requires more pilot training), and the mechanical complexity of a tilt-rotor affair is substantial, but it seems like significantly improving the range could be a significant win. Are the training and design challenges the limiting factor? Is the maneuverability trade-off too much? Anybody working in this space able to comment?

btbuildem 3y ago
Honestly, I think it's about the immediate availability, and hackability of the tech. The Ukrainian (army? partisans?) had to respond incredibly quickly to overwhelming force. Off the shelf DJI quadcopters that just happen to have a light control that could be hacked into a release switch + some 3D-printed parts for said switch and fins to convert mortar shells / hand grenades into droppable bombs -- that's one hell of a trial-by-fire hackathon, grab what you can access and convert it into what you need.
saidinesh5 3y ago
Control signal wise, you can go for 100+ km on hobby grade batteries and a simple fixed wing: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CYJ2UOrlXgM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CYJ2UOrlXgM The set up would probably cost you around 500 USD: $50 for the frame, $150 for the electronics (gps + fc + 2 motors + 2 servos), $50 for a basic analog fpv system, the rest for the batteries. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RabFZzRyZo8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RabFZzRyZo8 makes some interesting vtol experiments and his code is mostly open source, on GitHub.

btbuildem 3y ago

Honestly, I think it's about the immediate availability, and hackability of the tech. The Ukrainian (army? partisans?) had to respond incredibly quickly to overwhelming force. Off the shelf DJI quadcopters that just happen to have a light control that could be hacked into a release switch + some 3D-printed parts for said switch and fins to convert mortar shells / hand grenades into droppable bombs -- that's one hell of a trial-by-fire hackathon, grab what you can access and convert it into what you need.

saidinesh5 3y ago

Control signal wise, you can go for 100+ km on hobby grade batteries and a simple fixed wing: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CYJ2UOrlXgM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CYJ2UOrlXgM The set up would probably cost you around 500 USD: $50 for the frame, $150 for the electronics (gps + fc + 2 motors + 2 servos), $50 for a basic analog fpv system, the rest for the batteries. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RabFZzRyZo8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RabFZzRyZo8 makes some interesting vtol experiments and his code is mostly open source, on GitHub.