Hello!
I was wondering if Arduplane supports Turbojet engine for propulsion.
I currently have pixhawk 2.1 and I am willing to us it as my autopilot for my high speed RC plane. I am willing to go over 150m/s mark in the future. Does pixhawk 2.1 cube supports such high speed? and what is the maximum G-force it can handle.
Turbines are supported i think there are several turbine helis flying, not sure about planes, might need abit of work. I don’t think the speed should be a problem but as with anything you will have to build up slowly. Accelerators max out at 16g i think, but again I would build up slowly.
First step would be to get it flying in manual mode and look at the logs to see how happy the ekf is. This is not something that will work straight out of the box, it will need lots of testing and tuning.
I fly turbine helicopter with ArduPilot but we have different throttle control in heli that I have custom written for it. I’m not sure about the throttle control in Plane but the gas generators on the two-stage engines are the same as what’s used on the single-stage turbojets, except for the turbine wheel in the gas generator has different angle on the blades.
They all use the same FADEC and it requires a full-throttle signal to initiate it for the start sequence. Once the engine goes self-sustaining and stabilizes at ground idle power there must be a way make that setting to warm up the cans before you lean on it or you’ll crack the combustor cans. Normal warmup time at ground idle is ~2 minutes, which can be in taxiing to the runway, whatever. With helicopters warmup is achieved with ground run at flight idle power.
Turbines are NOT suitable for any sort of automated takeoff/landing procedures. Too much danger of flameout/compressor stall/fire. You crash a hot turbine and the fire is big. You’ll need the fire dept to put it out because you won’t be able to get within 50 feet of it if it’s carrying any amount of fuel.
If Plane can supply the required throttle signals to the FADEC for start/warmup/cooldown/shutdown there’s no reason it won’t work. The system won’t handle full 3D flight in helicopters but it will handle sport aerobatics and snap rolls at 12G just fine. There’s few airplanes I’ve ever seen that will have wings left on them after 12G’s so I don’t expect any problems with that.
The speed is not an issue. Fuel will be the issue to go 300+ kts. You’re going to be burning 12+ oz/min with a small 22lb thrust engine and a full US gallon every 5 minutes with a larger engine. A 5 US gallon can of JetA don’t go very far when you start flying RC turbines.