So you want to build an Orlan-10 drone

Johnny_L.A
Tue, 24 May 2022 21:50:22 +0000
Cafe Society

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.

14 posts - 5 participants