Building on my experience designing tailless flying wings, I wanted to explore a more complex configuration with a closely coupled V-tail.
Not complexity for its own sake, but an opportunity to better understand how different aircraft systems interact.
Different wing geometries. Different tail configurations. Different propulsion systems.
I used OpenVSP and VSPAERO to investigate the aircraft's aerodynamic characteristics and stability, then developed the geometry in Onshape before moving into prototyping and flight testing.
The original design used four tractor motors, but flight testing revealed some interesting challenges.
The four-motor arrangement introduced strong throttle-to-pitch coupling, producing a significant nose-up pitching response under power. Without that contribution from the propulsion system, the aircraft was noticeably pitch-stiff, with insufficient control authority for the manoeuvrability I was looking for.
This led me to explore different propulsion arrangements, CG positions and control configurations, eventually moving to two larger motors and distributing pitch control between the wing elevons and V-tail ruddervators.
The final arrangement uses the elevons for both pitch and roll, while the ruddervators provide pitch and yaw control.
It's not necessarily an optimal solution from an aerodynamic or control perspective, but it has proven highly functional in flight, giving me the manoeuvrability and control response I was looking for.
One area I'd like to investigate further in future iterations is the use of independently actuated, all-moving V-tail surfaces in similarly close-coupled configurations.
Final specifications:
- Wingspan: 600mm
- Flying weight: 249g
- Configuration: Twin tractor, closely coupled V-tail
- Propulsion: 2× 1103 brushless motors
- Battery: 2S 1000mAh LiHV
- Flight controller: Matek F405-Wing WMO / INAV
- FPV: DJI O4 Wide
- Construction: 3D-printed colorFabb LW-PLA
- Flight time: Approximately 7–9 minutes
Some experiments worked. Others challenged my assumptions, sometimes the hard way!
But with every iteration, my understanding improved, and the aircraft gradually converged on the flight characteristics I was looking for.
VENOM now flies exactly how I intended (damn beautifully), and I'm really happy with how the project turned out.
On to the next challenge!
More info on VENOM
