Designing Purpose-Built Drones for Ardupilot Pixhawk 2.1

Weight

Weight doesn't just affect the ability of a drone to get airborne. That much is obvious. Let's take an example from my experience. In the following image, you'll see a monster-sized fixed wing drone (the Skywalker X-8) with a nearly 8-foot wingspan, sitting on a slingshot-style launcher (known as a jetapult):

I built this drone in 2011. I thought I was really smart. The maximum payload for takeoff is 3.2 kg. So, I packed it full of batteries because I wanted this drone to stay in the air for extended periods of time. It flew beautifully when I was on the sticks. The first time I tested it on autonomous flight, the wings (literally) ...