24 October 2023
[Photo courtesy University of Manchester]
It hasn't been independently verified, but engineers at Great Britain's University of Manchester are betting they have built the largest unmanned quadcopter drone.
At 21 feet from tip to tip, the foamboard aircraft could indeed hold the record.
Dubbed the Giant Foamboard Quadcopter (GFQ), the drone's maiden flight was this past July inside a hangar at the Snowdonia Aerospace Centre. The GFQ weighs 54 lbs.—which is just a pound under the weight limit the Civil Aviation Authority mandated for this type of unmanned aerial vehicle.
"The first moments of flight are the make-or-break point for these types of multi-copter drones," said GFQ pilot Kieran Wood, a lecturer in Aerospace Systems at the University. "There are many hundreds of things that you must get right. Fortunately, the GFQ proceeded without a rapid, unscheduled disassembly."
GFQ has born from a student project exploring the use of low-cost, environmentally friendly materials for lightweight aircraft.
"Ultimately, with this design you are holding up 54 pounds of aircraft with just a few strategically placed pieces of paper," said University of Manchester professor Bill Crowther. "That's the art of the possible."
Not surprisingly, the University team wants to make the drone even bigger.
