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This is my attempt to come up with a better flying motorcycle design than what’s out there. I am a long-time motorcycle rider, mostly high-performance sport bikes. I know the joy of leaning into a turn and the limitless acceleration. This is the only design that I know which can move forward without tilting and can lean while turning, which will make a real aerial motorcycle riding experience possible.



The first couple of flights have been a little eventful, with a major crash. So, I replaced the ECSs which I believe caused the problem and re-tested today. I am keeping it low and close to make sure it can sustain a longer flight before taking it around the park. Looks very stable despite some wind.



I can move forward and back with differential thrust using the pitch stick. The fan tilt is controlled by the 5th channel. That will act like the clutch of a normal motorcycle, initiating a forward move without tilting the unit, making the awesome turns possible.



There will also be an aerodynamic addition to the design, after I get a chance to fly it faster and understand the areas to support.

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A faster flight as I build my confidence in the unit and the design. Some higher speed passes at the second half of the video and even some wheelies (I tilt the fans forward and pull the pitch stick back. The unit lifts the head up and does a wheelie). I am not even tilting the fans one third of the range yet. Exciting stuff

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05/27/18



I had a nasty crash after the last video. My guess is that the receiver lost signal resulting from the thick carbon fiber frame. So, replaced the RX and with a better long antenna one.



Testing the new aerodynamics. The first design didn’t work out. So, I decided to go with my first instinct (which I ignored before) and changed the design. This design should minimize the impact of the crosswind.



Successful test. The unit feels pretty stable when I tilt the rotors forward. Definitely slowed down, as a portion of the speed is being converted to upforce.



Things to work on: 1- The fans are not tilting in 100% synch caused by the design. Will need to work on that. 2- The added surfaces reduced the hovering stability. I will need to work on the PID again.



05/28/18



More crashes, more lessons learned.



1-When rear fan tilts too much the battery/canopy combination is cutting the airflow to the fan and the unit stalls. So, I made changes to tilt the front fan more and the rear fan less. I may cut the back of the canopy if needed or add a structure to direct the air to the fan intake at higher speeds.



2-Played with PID to fix the hovering stability and the fan tilt speeds.



3-Changed the design of servo/fan connections for added strength.



I still need to mount the tilt servos sturdier to handle the forces in the flight better. More work to do. Just wishing no more crashes.



The aerodynamics work. The unit slowed down and I can feel the lift. It leans into the turn by itself when I apply yaw (no roll input). Now I need to revise the tilt servo mounts and get it to higher speeds.

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The new MotoPhan maiden flight after the old unit got destroyed a couple of months ago as a result of a malfunction during the flight. The new unit is much lighter and a design flaw of the old unit which caused the tilt servos to be under load at all times was fixed by moving the tilt axis to the fan axis.



Another change is the thrust vectoring method, which is done by two carbon fiber blades under the fans in the new design. They seem to work pretty good. The main challenge with the new design will be aerodynamics, to be more specific, installing aerodynamic surfaces that move with the thrust vectoring and tilting mechanism.



I am expecting this unit to be more reliable and to have a longer flight time.



Thanks

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Turned out really good. This is the second flight. It likes leaning in to the turns just like a motorcycle. The center of gravity being way higher than the thrust vectoring axis, just like a motorcycles center of gravity being much higher than the wheel axis.



I tilted the fans once during the flight but it got too fast too quick and I was at the small section of the park so I went back to normal flying.



I am open to suggestions on how to cover this machine to look the best it can.



Thanks

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I looked for some superbike body shells that may fit the fuselage but couldn’t find anything reasonably priced. So, decided to build it my own. I am going with Ducati Zero Theme. I got the body shaped and wanted to do a flight test before going any further, to see the aerodynamic impact and get a sense of the looks. I am glad I did as the body had a significant negative impact on the yaw stability. It is quite a windy day but I wouldn’t expect this much of an impact. I will need to figure this out… Regardless, still flies and looks good.

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New design with significantly reduced lateral resistance... Way better but not perfect. I was trying to avoid rear wings but I think will be necessary...

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First test of the rear wings. Some headwind. Performed well. A couple of small revisions and will do a longer flight.

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Change of design due to a technical problem that I never had before.



First flight loss of power…. No change, not even powering it down, second flight no problems. Tried everything from replacing the ESCs to testing the battery voltage with no indication of any errors... In the end I may have solved it now and I still don’t know what it was…



Anyway, still have the old shell but will probably stick with this minimalist design that keeps the air intakes open.