Project Hex

Stunning @Blender #render #trailer displaying Project Hex’s concept* of Vulcan; an advanced #autonomous #UAS (Unmanned Aerial System) to enter in the AUVSI #SUAS 2023 competition. Toby continuing to produce beautiful results! Follow us on the journey. *Design subject to change.

Join us on taking a look at what went into building this incredible machine and where we will be taking Vulcan and Project Hex from here as we learn from our experiences and prepare for the SUAS 2024 Competition.

To this end we will be publishing a wave of new content on all our social media channels including lots of incredible flight footage.

Late April our Vulcan UAV suffered an unforeseeable failure resulting in the destruction of the airframe at our test site. As this took place during the final stages of our flight testing, shortly ahead of the SUAS Competition, we unfortunately had to withdraw this year's entry.

It’s near impossible to visualise a full-scale model as ambitious as Vulcan—but now we don’t have to. The pre-epoxy dry fit gave us our first ever chance to fully take in the results of our structures and manufacturing teams’ hard work. We can’t wait to share more as we progress!

With our global FEA model, we faced some unique obstacles inherent to the scale of our analysis and the resources available. Nevertheless, we’re proud to say that we’ve come away from it feeling confident and reassured. Find out more on our other platforms!

Although we’ve found that both materials would have acceptable stresses even through the worst, we’re opting for carbon fibre for its lower weight and higher factor of safety. To save even more weight, we’ll soon be analysing a series of optimised rib variants using FEA!

We’ve been analysing the stresses on the ribs under expected conditions and a worst-case scenario to figure out where the weak points are and how they’ll hold up. Our objectives have focused on materials (should we use aluminium or carbon fibre?) and the bolted connections.

Sturdy connections between the wing and the booms — key components of a twin-boom aircraft — are vital for a UAV’s flight readiness. Vulcan’s attachment ribs were analysed by Adam Dunn, who joined the team this year with valuable FEA experience gained from his year in industry.

This is the first of a series of posts covering the structures sub-team. Special thanks to Carbon Fibre Tubes Ltd, 3DXR, and all our other incredible sponsors who’ve helped Hex to reach this stage. #drone #uav #vtol #dronesforgood

Over the last year, Project Hex’s structures team led by Thomas Cracknell has been working on Vulcan—our VTOL UAS—which we’ll be taking to SUAS this June. Take a look at Vulcan’s inner workings in the latest of our incredibly detailed CAD renders!

Once again huge thank you to Skylift for providing us with their expertise and experience over the past few months. We really look forward to returning with Vulcan in the near future! #drone #uav #vtol #dronesforgood

The team did a number of hover tests before handing over the transmitter to Skylift's drone operator Lance who performed a straight-line transition. The aircraft performed very well and the team has high confidence in attempting a full transition at the next flight test day!

As promised here are some fantastic photos from the maiden flight of our MFE Fighter VTOL Testbed at the SkyLift headquarters.