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RQ-15 Stealth Drone

Quick Note: If you came from the challenge video or are just flying it in general, keep in mind that the gimbal camera can be controlled with the wasd and up/down keys, press 4 to toggle between the flight controls and camera controls. The control panels are meant as a secondary


The RQ-15 is a submission for MrNJersey's Drone challenge. I went for a semi futuristic jet design, and it ended up turning into a cross between the RAVN X and the Space Shuttle.

Updates:

(1) Better pitch control, which used to be slow compared to the roll/yaw before.
(2) Updated some microcontollers, added autopilot.



-550 KM/H Top Speed, 350 KM/H At Lowest Throttle Setting (Or at least the lowest that isn't Idle, more information on that later, I will also be referring to it as "minimum speed")

-~400 KM range at top speed, ~1000 KM range at minimum speed

-Flight Time Of ~40 Minutes At Top Speed, ~3 Hours At Minimum Speed

-16000 Liter fuel tank (Uses Jet Fuel)



For all the controls, read the details of the control console. However, here are the simple steps:

1. After entering the control room, activate the control station by either pressing (5), or the key switch on the right.

2. Activate engine (1 key or button)

3. Turn off the brakes (2 key or button)

4. On the middle screen, you can see the throttle (%) on the top right, and what setting it’s at (Idle - no thrust, Landing - much less thrust, Nothing Shown There - fast flight thrust. Keep in mind that you can fly at any thrust level other than idle, although you might stall if you do large maneuvers with landing thrust. Also, the idle/landing/flight is just based on the thrust percentage, it's not a separate thing you control)

5. Use the up/down arrow keys to adjust the thrust, and take off by just going to max thrust and pulling up (I feel like I should mention this isn't a VTOL to the one person who assumes it is).

6. Retract the landing gear (3 key or button)



-Set throttle to minimum speed

-Extend landing gear, and turn on brakes if you want to stop in only a few tens of meters of space

-Make sure that altitude hold is turned off, roll stabilizer is recommended to be on

-When you touch down, bring the throttle back to idle, and turn on the brakes if you have not done so already

-Alternatively, you can turn the throttle to idle when lined up and above the runway, and it will glide the last few meters down



Literally Every Button/Design Consideration


On the exterior of the control station, there are refueling/electric ports on one side, and equipment storage on the other end (these are on the short sides, not the long ones)

Inside the control station, you will find a control panel next to the door. That controls the generator, interior/exterior lights, heaters, and can switch on a backup battery.

The Generator Can Run For About 35 minutes, (0.6L/S Fuel Consumption, 1300 Fuel). It generates enough power for the base, and could be used to charge things like the drone though the electrical connector.



An explanation of the screens on the drone (I would recommend reading this to know some of the nice features included).

The left has an altitude, engine rps, and fuel (%) indicadors. The right has speed indicador, video, and composite signal strength indicators.

On the middle screen (from the top), the throttle is shown in percent, and there is also a indicador which shows the distance between the control station and drone. After that, there are indicators for landing gear, brakes, stabilizers, control to cameras, ect. There are also warnings that will flash for low throttle, fuel levels, and speed.

One of the best features is two lines near the center of the screen. The outer one points towards the bearing of the control station, and makes it extremely simple to get back to the control station. The inter one points toward the ground (since the artificial horizon doesn't show which way up is). (The lines also rotate around the center of the screen)

Finally, the gimbal camera screen has indicators for the gimbal camera, and the heading indicator shows the gimbal cameras heading. Similarly to the main screen, there is a line pointing to a bearing, except this one shows the bearing to the nose of the drone. When you switch to map view, the heading gets replaced with the drone heading, and there is a line pointing in the direction the drone is pointing on the map. If you have the lazer turned on, you can also see the distance to what it’s pointing at on the top right.


This section explains every button on the control console, moving left to right.

Under The Left Screen:

There is a keypad to set the frequency (you also have to set it on the drone, read the drone details for more information). Next, Toggles for lights (nav lights are the red/green, anti-collision makes the nav lights flash white, taxi lights are dim forward facing lights, and landing lights are much brighter versions) Finally, there is the control panel for the ALT Hold and Roll Stabilizer, brakes (which can be toggled with the 2 key), and the autopilot.

Middle Top Half

These control panels are dedicated to the gimbal camera. It has buttons to zoom/move the camera, which can be used when not in “control to cameras” mode, as well as a zoom lock and reset buttons. It also controls Stabilization, Tracking, Infrared, and Laser controls for the camera.

Middle Bottom Half

The leftmost control panel controls the engine, landing gear (can also be controlled with the 3 key), and the button to switch control to cameras (which is also controller with the 4 key). The middle control panel controls the forward camera (you can switch it to zoom/infrared modes, as well as zoom controls, resets, and locks) (the zoom can be controlled with the up down keys as well, if control is given to cameras). Finally, the rightmost control panel has some of the forward camera controls, but can also switch the gimbal camera feed to a map. You can also swap the forward camera with the gimbal/map screen.

Under The Right Screen

There are controls for the map, including zooming in/out (you can use arrow keys when control is given to cameras), a zoom reset, and a zoom lock. (It also locks resetting the zoom) Next, there is a keypad to input an altitude goal for the ALT Hold system Finally, there is a key which starts the control console, which can also be turned on by the 5 key.



-The 4 key (or button) can switch “Control To Cameras”. When it is pressed, the drone ignores the WASD and Arrow Keys for pitch, yaw, roll, and throttle control. Instead, it uses them to control the cameras.

-When it comes to the cameras and map, the up/down keys control the zoom. (Each one has an independent zoom lock switch, which stops the zoom from having an effect. Additionally, each has a button to reset the zoom to default values.) Additionally, the WASD keys are used to control the gimbal camera's pitch/pivot.



The main thing to know is that there are fuel/electrical ports on each side near the front of the wing, and equipment storage on each side in the same area. In the left compartment, there is a keypad to set the frequency.



jecki1379’s artificial horizon - https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2487462377
.bishop’s lua dials - https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2594618929

Please feel free to leave feedback and suggestions in the comments below.