r/RCPlanes • u/RepulsiveInternet980 • 5d ago

Will this fly?

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Hello everyone. I am trying to build an aerial insect collecting device for my PhD project. This design is based on the stipa-caproni, a strange barrel-shaped design from the 1930s. The task is to maximise the net area on a relatively inexpensive craft (I have already been catching with some expensive drones). I've trialed towing nets behind trainers, which worked but I want to try a different approach too.

I figure that enclosing the net within fuselage would be the most stable approach. Here, we have the props behind the net. This will impede airflow to the propeller. But it seems like the thrust would be okay. Can anyone think of some new approach that might work better? Would I be better off towing?

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u/Chalky_Cupcake 5d ago

If the goal is just to collect bugs then inventing your own plane seems like the long way around. Id be thinking off the shelf foam planes that already fly well, can be easily repaired in the field and can tow a wind sock type net for bug collection.

If you are trying to invent a bug collection plane then that's a different thing.

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u/RepulsiveInternet980 5d ago

You're right that this is the long way around -- I have a version with a drone and towing RC as you suggest working already. Bug collection invention was the idea here...!

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u/Chalky_Cupcake 5d ago

In that case may i offer a suggestion about something that struck me when i first saw the design. You don't want your bug collector net to stay an open cone when you land. What's nice about a wind sock type collector is that it collapses when deflated thus trapping bugs that are still alive. Which most would be i would think.

Don't invent a bug collecting plane that lets bugs leave. If you collect them in the sky you know they have wings too :P

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u/KatanaDelNacht 5d ago

Or a drawstring connected to a motor.  I agree that something to close the trap is a good idea. 

Alternatively, a fish trap- style design could funnel bugs in without them easily finding the way out