Hi all
Just stumbled across this amazing Quadcopter / Fixed Wing drone - Bell APT 70.
Does Ardu Pilot support something like this ?
My thought - instead of 4 electric motors, I would like to have 4 gasoline engines (for extended range) all with synched RPM and have 4 independent pitch, but which are controlled by the software. So what it should do is VTOL and >horizontal< flight (latter I am not sure ArduCopter supports).
Any feedback is welcome.
Thanks
John
Looks like a typical Ardupilot Tailsitter Quadplane.
It’s a little confusing at first but the VTOL/Quad-plane stuff is part of ArduPlane, not ArduCopter.
I am wondering if I could avoid rotor pitch mechanism but instead use rudder/elevator also for vtol steering ?
I think you could configure it as a non-vectored tailsitter with dual motor, sending the motor signal for each side to both motors on that side. It would then use the control surfaces for steering.
I thought about a “regular” quadcopter (as you mentioned non vectored) and if each motor as like the Bell APT 70 a elevator and rudder attached behind, then transition and rotation in VTOL mode should be possible - the question is just if ArduPilots supports that - I see a lot $$$ spending coming … 
ArduPlane supports two basic types of tailsitters, vectored and non-vectored. The non-vectored type can be further subdivided into Single/Dual Motor (which uses flight control surfaces in hover mode) and CopterMotor (which uses only the motors to provide pitch/roll/yaw like a multicopter).
You had basically said you didn’t want to treat it as CopterMotor, which basically leaves the Single/Dual Motor type, and since you’ve actually got four motors you could treat it as a dual motor type to make use of differential thrust, or just as a single motor. Either way should be supported by ArduPlane.
That said, read the tailsitter threads. There are lots of things that can go wrong, and a tailsitter with four 100cc engines could get really expensive in a crash.
Slowly possibly progressing. So if 2 engines are used and they drive each 2 “variable pitch” propellers → I guess this goes under “quadplane tailsitter” ?
Seems that dual motors are troublesome in adverse conditions. So a quadplane would make more sense.
=> sorry to ask, but is this setup now supported by ArduPilot ?
Guys … the penny dropped. It seems very difficult to use piston engine. Also the counter rotation of the propellers is a nightmare.
The new setup will be hybrid propulsion. Hope to post some pictures very soon.
