Applied Aeronautics Albatross UAV

  1. Albatross UAV - product page
  2. Albatross store
  3. Wikipedia on Albatross UAV
  4. FAQ
  5. youtube gives you an idea of the size of it - 3 meters almost 10 feet
  6. youtube - good intro video on Albatross
  7. more youtube
  8. youtube - takeoff and landing
  9. youtube - how parts fit together
  10. datasheet
  11. How to use Iridium with PX4 autopilot
  12. RockBlock 9603 Iridium satellite hardware
  13. Connecting Pixhawk to Jetson Nano or Raspberry Pi
  14. Skytrac IMS-350 Cell and Satcom also DLS-100 midband datalink DLS-100 datasheet - 743 grams AI and sensor fusion +1 844-643-6033 sales@skytrac.ca emailed 5/20
  15. Inmarsat Bgan serive - $250/month for 2.5 GB etc,
  16. Inmarsat hardware under 300 grams including antenna - 230 kbps
  17. Can connect PX4 over blutooth to cell phone - more on PX4 to bluetooth In the next year SpaceX hopes to have direct satellite to regular cell phone data service. Using a cell phone we would not need an external antenna like Iridium or costly monthly fees.

It seems the plane can hold about 5.5 Kg or 12 lbs total for "payload" and batteries. Each battery pack is about 1.3 Kg and lasts about 2 hours. They are 13.6 Ah and 22 volt or about 300 watt-hours. So plane uses about 150 watts to stay up. At 1.3Kg this battery is 231 wh/kg. Maxamps.com could get 14% better. It seems 3 of these, so 3.9 Kg, is how they get to 5 hour flights. There are new batteries that are 500 wh/Kg. If we had 4 Kg of these new batteries we would have 2000 wh and stay up about 13 hours. Could fly about 585 miles. Enough to cross Anguilla's ocean and come back. Wow.

Catapult launch. Could allow higher takeoff weight but mostly to reduce landing gear.

Thinking to have 1 wheel below center of mass and half inside. Like an RC glider. Roughly 1/6th the drag of 3 wheels all the way out in the wind. Folding prop and off during landing.