[loxias]

This is GREAT! I've been interested in this space for a long time, and a friend started a UAV company.

I've got nothing much to say other than it feels GREAT to see someone else doing a project I've always wanted to do but likely never would have gotten around to, and doing it well. Now I don't feel a "responsibility" to do it. ;-) Do feel free to hit me up if you ever need programming or DSP help ;-)

I'm curious: what are the scaling laws for this? What I mean is, what's the smallest plane that could still do continuous (or nearly continuous) flight?

Also curious what panels and batteries you're using (heck, I'm curious about the whole BOM... :)).

Don't worry, you'll have so many applications...

Have you put much thought into data uplink/downlink?

Gosh I'd love to stick some sensors on a half dozen of these and have a giant phased array...

Could a glider stay aloft for longer with less cost (long term) given a "Refueling" copter? I imagine a solar ground station with a drone physically moving charged batteries up and down might be another interesting way to stay aloft. I didn't say better. Just "interesting." :)

Can you also fly low altitudes?

Are the propellers so loud as to make microphones useless?

Honestly, SO COOL, and best of luck!

[jthomaslm]

Love the enthusiasm - it's definitely a very fun project to be working on!

Discussed a few of your questions elsewhere in the comments, but here are some thoughts on scaling laws:

Over-simplifying a bit for the sake of brevity: In general, for larger aircraft structural mass scales up more quickly than wing area (check out “indoor free flight models”). By using a span-loaded structure (i.e. having weight distributed along the wing span to match the way lift is spread over the wing) you can avoid some of these constraints and have an approximately constant structural mass fraction.

The aircraft is actually very quiet - it needs to be very aerodynamically efficient so it doesn't require much thrust. You can’t really hear it in flight, but I’m no audio engineer - so I don't know how useful microphones would be. Genuinely curious about this so if you have any pointers let me know!

[imdsm]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that has always wanted to do this but hasn't been able to. Requires a certain dedication of time & energy that many of us (especially 30s+) just don't really have.

I was going to ask essentially every question you asked so thank you, saved me some time. Waiting for answers too! So cool. Must be incredibly fun and satisfying. Just think of the telemetry! Just think of the data! The sensors and the actuators! My goodness.