As you may have read, I have recently been building a quad based on the SwiftBlade 250 aluminium frame from FlightWorks of Sweden. I had lots of fun building it and was blown away by its performance on the maiden flight.

I contacted Johan at FlightWorks a couple of days ago to thank him for making such a great frame and give him a link to my build thread. I knew he was also working on a new, all aluminium frame, so I asked him how it was going. When he wrote back and said that it would be released today and sent me some rather nice photos of the new craft, I felt my wallet tremble!

Without the innovation of small, independent companies like Johan's FlightWorks, the multirotor hobby would be far less fun.

While quite a few independents are well known names in the hobby, I've never seen the SwiftBlade, or FlightWorks mentioned outside of Sweden. That's a shame and hopefully my build thread for the SwiftBlade 250 and this introduction to the latest FlightWorks release will give Johan's work the exposure it deserves.

The second horse out of the FlightWorks stable is the Rebel 220. It's an ultra low profile design for 5" props and at just 115g including the camera protector, this all metal frame is a lightweight!

Anyway, I'll stop waffling and get to the pictures!









Credit for the excellent photos goes to the photographer, C. Eltvik.   

I can't wait to get my hands on one of these frames! It's going to be an even more challenging build than the SwiftBlade 250 but I have a feeling that the rewards will be well worth the effort. A build thread for the Rebel 220 can be expected.

I'm also really happy to be supporting a local Swedish designer with my purchase!

You can find FlightWorks here: FlightWorks

Very cool quad indeed! It reminds me of a piece of Meccano!

Your going to need sunglasses to deal with all those shiny quads

As a guy who finds himself always rooting for the underdog, kudos for sharing the "little guys" excellent products that would otherwise be overlooked.

Talk about good timing! I just passed by the web site of the shop that is selling these frames here in Sweden to see that there was one frame listed as being in stock.

Not any more!

Luuuuucckkyyyyyy
Looking forward to another sleek build from you!

If the postal service pulls their finger out, and that's a big if, I might actually have this frame tomorrow.

What I'm completely undecided on at the moment is the rest of the build. You know, important things like motors, props, ESCs, flight controller etc. As it will be such a tight build, I'm leaning towards a 4-in-1 ESC and trying to shave as much weight as possible.

Maybe some super light high kv 2205 motors with 5045 bullnose props?

All suggestions are welcome!

So, I decided to go for the high kv light motor option with a 4-in-1 ESC.

Some RCX SE2205 v2 2600kv motors and a DYS F20A 4-in-1 ESC should shortly start the journey from Hong Kong to me!

I'm just hoping there is room for the Betaflight F3 flight controller and the ESC inside the body. From what I can see, there's only 10mm of height!

(04-May-2017, 06:30 PM)unseen Wrote: So, I decided to go for the high kv light motor option with a 4-in-1 ESC.

Some RCX SE2205 v2 2600kv motors and a DYS F20A 4-in-1 ESC should shortly start the journey from Hong Kong to me!

I'm just hoping there is room for the Betaflight F3 flight controller and the ESC inside the body. From what I can see, there's only 10mm of height!

can't wait for the review!

the stack height might be proven challenging. The BFF3 has the positive power soldered on top of the board, and negative on the bottom, so it requires extra room vertically. 
I think separate ESC's on the arms would have been a better idea

Thankfully, my estimate of 10mm was incorrect. It's at least 16mm and seeing as I've fitted a PDB and flight controller into 12mm before, I'm no longer worried!

If I'm going to put the ESCs on the arms, I may as well just buy a carbon fibre frame instead.

A large number of very shiny aluminium parts have arrived here at unseen towers!



It will be a while before I can start building though. My motors are still "being processed for departure from Hong Kong" according to tracking.

Ooooh yyeeeaaahhhhh!!!
Patiently awaiting your build. OK. No I'm not. HURRY UP SLOWBOAT!

I was waiting for this Please tell us how much does a single arm weight?

What I am thinking is to combine something similar with carbon plates, namely - is the reduction in drag worth the added (?) weight of aluminium?

(10-May-2017, 07:36 PM)KonradS Wrote: I was waiting for this Please tell us how much does a single arm weight?

What I am thinking is to combine something similar with carbon plates, namely - is the reduction in drag worth the added (?) weight of aluminium?

I'll put one on the scales for you when I get home Konrad.

The thing with the arms is not just about less drag, it's also about less wasted thrust. Unless you have really thin arms, part of the propeller's thrust is going to be wasted if there's a solid arm underneath it.

(10-May-2017, 07:44 PM)unseen Wrote: I'll put one on the scales for you when I get home Konrad.

The thing with the arms is not just about less drag, it's also about less wasted thrust. Unless you have really thin arms, part of the propeller's thrust is going to be wasted if there's a solid arm underneath it.

Great "Less wasted thrust" is what I'm after, used bad wording here

The designer of the frame makes an interesting point about the difference between metal and a carbon fibre composite.

A metal arm has equal strength in every direction, but a carbon fibre arm's maximum strength is in the same direction as the weave of the cloth that was used. On even the strongest frames, the composite only has woven fabric on the top and bottom layers. The inner carbon fibres are all laid in the same direction.

When a carbon fibre arm is subjected to stress that is across, rather than with, the direction of the carbon fibre threads, the only thing that is resisting the stress is the adhesive that's used to bond the layers. This can never be as strong as it is in the other direction.