My cousin has a friend who owns I think one that cost him £25,000 but his friend was extremely well off due to a granny that passed away leaving him about £500,000 or something idk I need to check with my cousin...
http://drones.specout.com/l/141/XactSense-MAX-8 Check this out. 65.000 USD... flight time: 25 minutes .... 65.000 USD ...... 25 minutes ....
Best part is this I don't own a drone, but I really want one, since they're just fun to fly (one of my friends has one, it's pretty awesome)
I've been wanting to build one one of these days... There's a ravine just behind my house, and it's really difficult to explore anywhere by foot due to the wonderful blackberries that grow everywhere here. A drone with a camera and long signal range would be awesome. There used to be a bridge across the ravine, and even though I believe a reached the point by foot, I'm sure I'd be able to see something new with a drone. They look like alot of fun to fly in general.
To offset that 65k monstrosity above, I will enlighten you all with this gem. No price yet but definitely worth keeping an eye considering up to 8hr flight time. Over 3 hours proven on YouTube, look it up. http://www.quaternium.com/portfolio/hybrix-uav/
I'm going to build one of these fancy hybrid drones. It's really a great idea at it's core becsuse edurance is at the top of the list for me. I've been using Autodesk inventor for modeling the frame, of which, I haven't really come up with anything I've liked enough to spend the money on and start building. Help? Basic parts list Engine, preferably gas. Displacement is under consideration but im thinking anything from 20cc - 60cc depending on size of drone Batteries (talking 12000mah and up) Motors for propulsion as well as one to use as a generator. Power/flight control electronics Frame materials (Aluminium plate?) All things that I have to consider as I try and design a frame, which is why its tricky. I've been using ecalc xcopter in order to figure out what configurations I might want to go with. I should probably go post this on a multirotor thread though lol.
For the generator, look into both actual car alternators (should come in upto 150A or so) and brushless DC motors. The brushless motors are 3 poles not the simple 2 which you may well be familiar with, but the important point is that upon spinning of the rotor from an external source, it is 3 phase AC emitted, 6 diodes allows this to be rectified to DC. You can get rather large powers from them and 3 phase to DC rectification gives a cleaner output than 2 phase. Car alternators are also 3 phase AC rectified to DC. I've personally been more interested in a pure gasoline drone. Although this may prove mechanically complex. Essentially 4 variable pitch props spinning at fixed speed and shaft/belt driven from the motor was what I was thinking. This has actually been done with an electric model before though and did work.
Ah, those little buggers..... Yeah that explains all those gunshots I hear in town during the summertime... Dem neighbors xD
