Ukrainians have famously taken apart a Russian Orlan-10 UAV, revealing it’s made of off-the-shelf, non-Russian, consumer components. The contractor charged as much as $120,000. The Ukrainians said they could build it for about $3,000 – ‘A majority of that would be used on cigarettes and snacks,’ says another article.
Let’s say I wanted to build my own drone. It needs an airframe. This could be any of a number of off-the-shelf large, balsa, radio controlled models. (Yes, the Orlan-10s are composite; but let’s stick with something readily available that we already know flies.) It will need an engine. I think one of the articles I’ve read says that it provides power to the electronics. It would need a camera, such as the Canon, an infrared camera, and a ‘pilot’s view’ camera. So how do you A) Get the images back to the control station; and B) Get the commands from the control station to the UAV? A couple of weeks ago I read the term for the device, but I can’t remember what it was called. It communicates with the control station and sends video/images and receives control inputs. Since in a combat situation, cellular coverage might be a little tentative, the controller would have to be an independent transceiver. I suppose you’d need to connect a GPS receiver to the what’s-it too so that you know where the UAV is.
So what are the parts I’d need to build an aircraft with the same (or better) capabilities as the Orlan-10, with the stipulation that they all be easily bought online (such as through Amazon)? What would the total approximate cost be?
NB: I’m not going to build one. I’m just curious to find out what it would take for an R/C hobbyist to do this.
What capabilities do you want aside from flying by remote control? Launch mode? Range? Is there an autonomous mode? Does this carry any weapons, missiles, bombs? Are they bombs?
Off the shelf wings, control surfaces, remote controller, and telemetry are the way to do it quickly. Fuselage made from composite tubes and foam will do.
Since the ad was in Russian, I assumed it was the Russian ruble. Googling ‘py6’ said it’s the ruble.
Asking to duplicate the capabilities of the Orlan-10.
It’s the telemetry I can’t guess at. There needs to be ‘something’, probably off-the-shelf, that allows one to control the aircraft remotely; and that doesn’t rely on cellular service, and does not use short-range hobbyist r/c gear.
Ok, so this according to the linked article:
“With a takeoff weight of 14 kilograms, it is capable of carrying up to 5 kilograms of payload (this is not an attack drone, it cannot carry weapons, we are talking only about cameras for aerial photography). The maximum speed of such a device is 150 km / h, the range is from 50 to 120 km (with a flight range of 600 km). The drone can stay in the air for 10 to 16.5 hours at an altitude of up to 5,000 meters and lands by parachute.”
I’m not clear what the range actually is from that. The wiki has similar numbers. Ok, more in this article. I think 600km is the telemetry range, and 10 to 16.5 hours is the battery life of the telemetry equipment. The flight range is still not clear without fuel consumption and capacity figures. Kinda surprised this is using an IC engine and not battery powered. That engine weighs approx. 1 lb., 4 stroke, .95HP claimed, pretty good energy density. Not clear how much fuel can be carried.
I’m sure there is. I’m not sure who I can ask about this anymore but the 600km telemetry range might be hint at what kind of radio communications they’re using. I think the hobbyist gear can be adapted to the right kind of transceiver.
It’s really easy to handwave away the energy density of gasoline and similar fuels. Having an RV we boondock with, I’ve avoided the whole solar thing because there’s NO WAY I’ll get beck the investment, not when compared to how much you get from a gallon of gas.
ISTM it’s something like a remote television van, but much smaller and allows for remote control over the aircraft. I did read an acronym a week or three ago, but I didn’t have time to drill down. For the life of me, I can’t remember what it was called. I’m not sure if it was part of a GPS-based autonomous flight system, or if it was separate. Maybe @Stranger_On_A_Train knows? It seems that would be right in his bailiwick.
I didn’t know anything about this drone initially, and saw some big numbers implying long flight time that would require slow flight or shutting down the engine. I think the flight time for this is not exceedingly long and cost wise right now a gas engine makes sense. It’s a 4 stroke, didn’t have time to dig into the engine specs yet, but I assume a reasonable distance. It does appear to be using nitromethane fuel, not the highest energy density fuel but still quite good. I don’t know it’s current cost. It has soared in priced occasionally from shortages but could be quite reasonable these days. I wouldn’t expect solar to help that drone, it doesn’t have huge wings to load up with solar cells.
Whatever the Russians are using according to the article can control 4 drones from 1 command controller. A lot of details missing on what kind of video resolution and frame rate to expect. It also has some autonomous mode so I would assume that involves GPS. It is this remote flight control system communications which is key technology not readily available otherwise. But maybe even that is easy to find, though I’m guessing quite expensive.
