After two years since the last post to this thread, I've finally made full circle on this project. The pictures above shows an x-8 that once was a foam FPV kit that has been modified heavily in order to be able to serve as a platform for my senior design project on bioprecipitation. In addition, I've teamed up with other professors at my college to use this UAS for land erosion studies and general agricultural remote sensing.

As for constructing the airplane, all surfaces were fiber glassed with .6oz cloth. The vertical fins on top were added to aid in yaw stability. Lower rails were added for attachment points for gear. Both rails have two servo hook-up channels for auxillary purposes. Leading and trailing edges are laminated with carbon tissue to minimize wing flex at the tips and to increase overall durability. E-flite 60-120 retracts were installed. The center portion is a 2 axis camera gimble. The front nose rails were added for a crash landing bumper. The list of modifications goes on...

Thanks for all the previous interest/comments. You guys aided in motivating me to fulfill this project. The first flight is just around the corner, which will be a normal R/c piloted flight. Subsequent flights will be guided via GPS and on-board microprocessor. Only take off and landing will be flown by traditional R/c methods.

With respect to the original thread's purpose, 3x5000mah 5S packs are going to power a 2Kw motor. Hopefully this can carry us far and high enough to do all that is needed. I believe max prop clearance is 16 inches.

Brandon Landry