NOVAerial also does custom UAV construction for customers needing specialized systems for uncommon applications or research and development.  Machines are assembled with professional techniques and using only the highest quality components.

Gas Powered 800 Helicopter

This machine was assembled for a customer in Spain.  It is based on the popular Align TRex700 mechanics with a HelixHeli gas frame conversion, but fitted with 800mm blades and tail boom.  A Zenoah G29RC engine is installed.  Servos are brushless hall-sensor servos for durability in the high vibration environment.

It was used as a test bed for the first ever installation of Pixhawk running Ardupilot firmware on a gas powered helicopter.  The vibrations from the engine require special care during preparation, and a special vibration isolating mount must be engineered for the Pixhawk.

 

Electric 800 Camera-ship

This machine is also based on an Align machine, in this case the TRex 800 with camera gimbal and bodywork.  It was assembled for Queen’s University Geography Department who will be using it for detailed geographic imagery using a full-frame DSLR and high quality calibrated lenses.  They chose a helicopter platform in this case both because of the payload, and the need to fly in high winds for operation in Canada’s arctic archipelago.

1050 Octocopter

This is a 1050mm diameter octocopter with 15″ propellers, that was assembled for our own internal usage (mostly aerial photography and code development).  It features retractable landing gear, which actually was the impetus for the addition of automatic retractable landing gear firmware improvement in Ardupilot.  It has a flight time of 25 minutes with the Sony Nex5 camera and gimbal, which is good for an Octocopter of this size.

 

Electric 500 Coaxial Helicopter

This Coaxial helicopter was built for a customer in the USA.  It was used as a test-bed for development of coaxial helicopter flight control code which NOVAerial also completed for the customer.  The code changes were successful and later went on to be used for development of another coaxial helicopter system.  However, this test-bed proved to not be a good system, suffering from extremely high vibration.