Drone airframe
In forward flight the body and arms make drag, and drag comes straight off the flight time. Changing an arm section is cheap; measuring it is not.
The decision
How much drag does changing the body shape or the arm section actually save in forward flight.
Setting it up
- Take the propellers off: rotating geometry is not represented in a run like this
- Set the forward speed and the pitch angle the airframe holds at that speed
- Change the arm section and run each variant as its own STL
What you see
- Pressure over the body and the arms
- The wake behind the arms
- Live CD, for comparison between variants
The awkward part
Propeller flow is a large part of a real drone's aerodynamics and it is not here. This run compares the airframe's own drag, not the aircraft's performance.
The limit
This is a design-stage tool. Use it to compare shapes against each other and to catch obvious mistakes. For a number that goes to certification, approval or a signature, take the chosen shape to a validated solver or a wind tunnel.
Other analyses
Try it with your own file
Free during the beta. Request a key by e-mail and install it on a Mac running macOS 14 or later on Apple Silicon.
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