Old Projects and Discontinued Frames

Discontinued ARX-5R race frame

Most, if not all, of these frame projects had a small contribution towards the development of the XLR V3.

***A Work In Progress***

There is A LOT of old material to go through – I never realized how much content I had on my old website, so this may take awhile… I will start with a few pictures and then add descriptions.

Contents:

  1. Early Projects
  2. Efficiency Projects
  3. Frame Kit Development
  4. Frame Kits

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Early Projects

I never really liked the layouts on any quadcopter frame, so from the very beginning, I was experimenting with different layouts.

I don’t think everyone’s 1st build looks like hell, but mine did. I do know that the boom had an LED at the end of it to help me fly by eye

The one and only hexacopter that I ever built and flew. It actually taught me that more blades don’t equate to more speed.

This had those old Simon K ESCs which were junk and failed on me at an altitude of almost 2000 feet.

I started mounting the motors at an angle but realized that the center of the frame was still acting like an air brake.

 

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Efficiency Projects

After realizing how inefficient quadcopter frames are, I decided to make more drastic changes. After a short amount of time, I never bought any frame kits, I just made my own one way or another. The frame design changed drastically from beginning to end (technically still going), but I wanted to start with a clean slate with no influence by any other existing projects. So far, there have been roughly 30+ projects.

With angled motors and a more aerodynamic center, the “Mark V” was the true start of my efficiency projects. Yes, we have a long way to go.

Project C5 had a rough ending in the salty water of the ocean.

 

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Frame Kit Development

Most frame development was done in CAD. However, I did build a few prototype frames.

Prototypes like this were mostly to test out some ideas.

Another idea testing prototype.

 

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Frame Kits

Although extremely efficient, quiet, and well balanced, these kits never caught on (one frame was able to hit 203mph). Not only is it impossible to compete with prices of the frames made in China, It is very difficult to make a race frame withstand the abuse they take during a race. This was actually a heartbreaker since this type of race abuse didn’t allow for optimizing the way I had imagined.

I still personally fly these frames. I don’t race so they aren’t abused enough to be breaking all the time.

The ARX-R was the fastest kit frame hitting 203 mph but it was very difficult to repair.

The ARX V2, my favorite frame, easy to repair and still flying for over 2.5 years

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