Current progress
Posted in General by Brad on April 18th, 2007 It seems to me, that for some people progress moves quite rapidly and for others, painfully slow. I seem to be agonizing between the two. Looking at how long it takes some people to develop a prototype, I know I’m probably moving along at a respectable pace. However knowing my own talents and abilities, and responsibilities of my day job, I am moving at turtleneck speed. While at some future point in time I will look back from my well lived viewpoint and ponder having gone through this experience, I know that right now, this moment, being in the experience is not particularly exciting or fun.
I really feel the resistance of having to do what must be done to get business off the ground, quite literally considering it’s a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) to be used for search and rescue and delivery of survival materials. Actually, two UAV’s are involved in the complete system, and right now I’m only working on the first one – which will be used to find the lost and needy. The delivery vehicle will come a short time (”yeah right”, the voice in my head chuckles) later once this first airframe is proven and we have video proof of the concept flying.
As such, here are some pictures I’ve been taking to show my progress:
As you can see, the fiberglass which I am using is quite thin. It is one quarter ounce fiberglass, which is how much this stuff weighs per square meter. Once it is bonded with the epoxy on the foam core, it’s amazingly strong, even at only one layer. I do have some 2 oz. fiberglass to use for more strength and rigidity, or for structural reinforcement. I just don’t see using the heavy stuff right now. If neccessary, I can add another layer of the 1/4 oz. to stiffen things up or make them tougher.
At this point I want to make regular updates here, showing my work and progress. It all has to do with accountability and taking this responsibility seriously. Someone just needs to check on this to keep me in check, so-to-speak 
