Quote:
Originally Posted by Tristan Lall
Interesting. The International Aerial Robotics Competition (in 2007 and 2008, at least) took a different approach to safety.
Competitors were permitted to fly in much closer proximity to buildings, people and other equipment, because the challenge involved identifying and delivering payloads into a building. Nevertheless, there were certain areas designated as a restricted, and only event staff and vehicle crews were allowed in.
All vehicles were required to be "rendered ballistic" upon command, for safety. Is that what SAE Aero Design mandates?
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Rendered ballistic seems dangerous, Design/Build/Fly requires full up elevator, right rudder and right aileron and throttle off in the event of a loss of signal. That way the airplane goes into a spin, and having seen a couple even if it failsafed over your head you would have time to get out of the way.
Spectators are lined up along one edge of the flightline about 100 feet back, except for the pilot, observer, and contest officials. This was not always the case.
In particular, this video. (mild language, but these people are inches away from getting smashed by an r/c plane)
I think it would be very tough to fly slow enough with all of the essential mass you need to meet the definition of an FRC ROBOT. It would be an interesting conceptual design though... likely a biplane (might as well do a triplane for kicks) to get remotely close to the slow flight you'd need to stay in the field. It would be a very ugly airplane.
