Check out Tsung Xu's YouTube video where he builds and demonstrates a homemade drone that flies 130 miles on a single charge — with almost no prior experience.
"I made this 130 mile capable VTOL (vertical take off and land) drone in only 90 days. It can fly for 3 hours on a single charge. That would make it one of the longest range and endurance 3D printed VTOLs in the world," Xu says.
Before this project, Xu says he was "a total CAD, 3D printing and aerodynamic modeling beginner." He had built exactly one VTOL before — a simple foam model.
After multiple crashes during testing, he refused to quit. "After two weeks of troubleshooting I finally realized the issue was overheating ESCs [Electronic Speed Controllers, components that regulate power to the motors]," he explains, showing the smoking wreckage of earlier attempts.
The payoff comes when his creation successfully transitions from helicopter-like hovering to airplane-style forward flight "The cruise propeller started generating thrust, it was actually wing-borne," Xu says.
How did a novice pull this off? Smart design choices and relentless optimization. He swapped a three-blade prop for a more efficient two-blade design and obsessed over aerodynamic modeling for better lift-to-drag ratios.
The video is a master class in what determination and modern maker tools can accomplish. While commercial drone makers spend millions on R&D, this guy in his workshop just showed them up.
Previously:
• This is the US military's $200k drone that fits in your palm
