Ritewing Mini Drak The ultimate FPV flying wing
RC airplanes can take different forms and shapes. You can build a traditional airplane with a tail, elevator, and a rudder. You can build a flying wing, V-tail, or anything else you want. Let me show you the best RC airplane I've found so far. I have it for almost two years and it still rocks! Behold the Ritewing Mini Drak!
Although "De gustibus non est disputandum", Mini Drak is probably the best fixed-wing model ever created. Just look at those shapes, line and curves. The most obvious visual feature of an MD are, of course, negative swept wings. The negative sweep is not huge, but noticeable. It gives it an aggressive look and makes it look slightly like a Klingon Bird Of Prey. If you like Star Trek, you know what I mean!
Despite the name, Ritewing Mini Drak is not Mini at all. Sure, it might be smaller than full-size Drak, but it's still 40" (around 101cm) wingspan and 550 square inches (around 35dm^2) wing area. Despite the reasonable size, Mini Drak has detachable wings held together with the fuselage by two carbon spars and small velcro straps. With wings removed, the airplane can fit in a backpack, and assembly takes only a few minutes. The velcro straps that hold wings together might not look safe, but surprisingly, they are all that is needed. During the flight, minimal forces act on that velcro, and the friction of the spars absorbs the majority of the force.
For building a Mini Drak, here are some tricks that might help you:
- Center of Gravity on a Mini Drak is approximately 1" (2,5cm) from a front edge of a front wing spar
- To balance correctly, your battery will have to be very much in the front! With heavy motor and light battery, you might have to put extra weight in the nose
- The whole front section generates a lift, and Mini Drak in flight has a pug nose.
- The foam is extremely durable, but to survive more substantial crashes, you need to install all the carbon fiber rods. I've found out that the best way to do it is to use hot glue. It might not be the lightest solution, but works surprisingly well
- I mentioned it before: those velcro pads are all needed to keep their wings in place during the flight. Do not worry. They will not fell apart
My Mini Drak Build
- Weight: 1250g with battery
- Motor: SunnySky X2216 1400KV
- Propeller: APC 8x6 Electric
- Servos: EMAX ES3054 17g
- ESC: Racerstar RS80A 80A ESC
- FPV Transmitter: TBS Unify Pro HV
- HD Camera: Caddx Tarsier 4K
- FPV Camera: RunCam Eagle 2
- Flight controller: Matek F722-WING running INAV 2.4
- RC receiver: FrSky R9 Slim +
- RC transmitter: FrSky R9M2019
- FPV Antenna: ProDrone Pro Cloverleaf RX
- Battery: 4S 4000mAh Nano-Tech
On top of that, I've designed a few extra 3D Printed parts for Mini Drak. Mainly to help put HD camera and RC receiver in place:
- Mini Drak RX bay cover with antenna mount
- Mini Drak RunCam Split Mini v2 nose mount
- Mini Drak RunCam Split Mini v3 nose mount
- Mini Drak nose for Caddx Tarsier and FPV Camera
How does it fly? Amazing. One word that describes it all. Just look and see for yourself:
