Wallace Tucker

Each 450 mm arm releases from the core and carries a MAD M6C10 EEE 300 KV motor with a 22 x 7 folding polymer prop. Power and signal connect through blind-mate blade connectors on fully custom boards, as the arm seats mechanically, so there are no hand-plugged connectors. Arms are built around prefab carbon tube and held by grade 5 titanium cam levers. LED lighting boards are mounted on each motor mount. About 25 attach and detach cycles so far, without incident.

The TBS Lucid AM32 ESC is built into the motor mount, with CFD-optimized, five-axis-machined heat sinks and cooling fins. Each mount runs 60 A at 6S. Thrust is about 9 kg per motor at sea level and 8 kg at 5,000 ft. In an 18-minute hover test, temperatures stayed at normal operating levels and no temperature warning was raised in flight.

A custom isogrid hexagon machined from 6061 on five axes: 85 mm sides, 5 mm walls, 100 mm tall, under 300 g.

The isogrid core is more than 55% lighter than a plain tube and about 94% lighter than a solid block of the same size. Calculated for an 85 mm hexagon, 100 mm tall, in 6061 at 2.70 g/cm³.

Ladder-style legs made of carbon tubes bonded to carbon plates. Spring pins make them quick to swap.

A 6S8P lithium-ion pack of EVE Energy 50PL 21700 cells (5000 mAh each, 40 Ah, about 864 Wh nominal) weighs 3.5 kg and reached 40 minutes unloaded, with a 350 A peak rating. The EVE 50PL won a four-cell shortlist on cost: at about $5 per cell, the 48 cells cost roughly $240, or about $280 per kWh. The original pack is 6S4P 5450 mAh LiPo cells built into a single unit, held together by carbon plates and secured with thumbscrews for quick swaps. It weighs 3.2 kg and flew 22 minutes unloaded with about 30% battery left.

The lithium-ion pack holds about 80% more energy for about 9% more weight. Energy figures use nominal cell voltages (3.6 V lithium-ion, 3.7 V LiPo).

Cube Orange running ArduPilot, with a Here3 RTK GPS and a Mauch power module. I configured the waypoint missions and handled the ArduPilot work after initial setup.

Candidate blade layouts defined station by station, then scaled for bench testing.

Mechanical parts are aluminum and polymers. The frame is mostly acrylic, so every moving part is visible.

I machined the rotating assembly, block and valvetrain on CNC machines. A clear SLA-printed valve cover shows the valves and the combustion indicator LED.

I built the full electronic setup: LEDs that show combustion, an RPM indicator, and safety interlocks including an e-stop and a motor switch.

It runs continuously on my shelf at about 42 rpm.

A 1.25 in foam core wrapped in wet-layup glass fiber, so it can withstand vacuum pressure.

Prepreg top and bottom skins, 10 plies each: six at 0 degrees, two at +45 and two at -45.

Three-point bending. The beam carried a peak load of 795 lb at 21 in long and weighed 179 g.