Phantom 3 carbon fiber shell

[mountainpilot]

If a carbon fiber shell were available for the bottom half of a P3, would anyone be interested in replacing your plastic bottom half of the shell?

Potential benefits:
Lighweight
Strong - no stress cracks

 

[Don Doucette]

If a carbon fiber shell were available for the bottom half of a P3, would anyone be interested in replacing your plastic bottom half of the shell?

Potential benefits:
Lighweight
Strong - no stress cracks

Yes... Yes I would.

 

[Gary E]

That is my plan. About 3-4 layers of CF twill, resin, add vacuum. After my warranty goes.

That would make the craft awful heavy, depending on what ounce CF cloth you are using. One bid of 6 ounce loose weave would be enough. If you can get it to wrap around the sharp curves. But then their would be open gaps in the weave to deal with.

I've done enough composite glass work, including CF, to know that a bottom shell of CF would be a difficult, and an expensive undertaking to mass produce. To get the typical "good look" of CF, twill CF cloth would need to be used and vacuum bagged, with a lot of post layup work needing to be done, ie, trimming, air vents, threaded screw inserts installed, etc. I think the cost would be way too high. Maybe someone might be interested in doing a "one off" just for the interest in doing it. A lot of labor involved.

I built this "one-off" CF oil tank cover. A lot of work. Build a plug, then a mold from the plug, beef up the mold, the CF wet layup (no vacuum bagging), trim work, clear coating, finish work.

 

[tmartin62]

Sounds like a great idea although a better designed plastic one with more reinforcement at the arms and motor mounts might serve the purpose and be less costly. I wish I had the resources to do so, I would produce this one myself.