DARPA Lift Challenge program manager Phillip “Donna” Smith joins analyst Joshua Bardwell and lead commentator Todd Harris to break down Dmaterial’s inflatable heavy lift quadrotor. They open on the reaction everyone has, that there must be something rigid inside. There isn’t. The pressurized tubes are the structure. A few things they picked up on: Inflatable structures were explored decades ago and kept failing under stress. That is accurate, and it is why we use RF welded Dyneema. Both the material and the bond have to be extremely strong to contain the air pressure. They spotted the ESC we relocated to the side of the arm after a prop strike grounded our first run. That change came out of one of our crashes they saw live. Bardwell on the multirotor fit: “Multi-rotors have to be very light, very stiff, and very strong. And that’s a very unique material solution.” And on water, they got

Source: Joshua Bardwell and DARPA Lift Challenge PM, Phillip “Donna” Smith, on Dmaterial’s Inflatable Drone