The PD-1 Fleet

Every variant of the prototype, drawn to build: three sizes crossed with four control configurations, then the full engineering plate set. Same airframe logic throughout — only the highlighted element changes.

Renders

Photoreal concept renders, generated locally on the shop machine — no cloud, no API.

Series 03 — perovskite solar skin, self-recharge concept

Solar fleet — the self-recharging skin across the sizes.

Skin detail — hexagonal perovskite cells under the taut mylar film.

Resume mission — lifting off after hours on solar.

Solar recharge after an emergency landing — the embedded perovskite grid drinks midday sun.

Series 02 — taut mylar skin, to the PD1- schematics

A flush rim port firing a cold-gas burst.

PD-1 against open sky — cyan underside ring at power.

From below: the 12 recessed cyan ports and the duct outlet.

Studio isolation — drum-taut aluminum-doped mylar, seam tape only.

Series 01 — first concept study, brushed metal

Scout, Baseline and Cruiser on the hangar floor.

PD-1 against open sky — underside ring at power.

From below: recessed ports and the exhaust annulus.

Studio isolation — gunmetal hull, panel lines.

Variant fleet — 10 permutations

PD1-36 · V-A RINGFLAT. fixed duct — every motion pneumatic — 5.5 kg, 15 in props, He 70 L ≈ 1.3%. first tether article.

PD1-48 · V-A RINGFLAT. fixed duct — every motion pneumatic — 7.4 kg, 18 in props, He 170 L ≈ 2.3%. first tether article.

PD1-60 · V-A RINGFLAT. fixed duct — every motion pneumatic — 9.5 kg, 24 in props, He 400 L ≈ 4.2%. first tether article.

PD1-36 · V-B VECTOR. servo gimbal ±12° vectors the lift — 5.5 kg, 15 in props, He 70 L ≈ 1.3%. baseline · Phases 1–2.

PD1-48 · V-B VECTOR. servo gimbal ±12° vectors the lift — 7.4 kg, 18 in props, He 170 L ≈ 2.3%. baseline · Phases 1–2.

PD1-60 · V-B VECTOR. servo gimbal ±12° vectors the lift — 9.5 kg, 24 in props, He 400 L ≈ 4.2%. baseline · Phases 1–2.

PD1-36 · V-C MAGRING. EM quadrants tilt the stack — no servos — 5.5 kg, 15 in props, He 70 L ≈ 1.3%. Phase-3 R&D.

PD1-48 · V-C MAGRING. EM quadrants tilt the stack — no servos — 7.4 kg, 18 in props, He 170 L ≈ 2.3%. Phase-3 R&D.

PD1-60 · V-C MAGRING. EM quadrants tilt the stack — no servos — 9.5 kg, 24 in props, He 400 L ≈ 4.2%. Phase-3 R&D.

PD1-60 · V-D CRUISER-60. full He annulus · payload hook — 9.5 kg, 24 in props, He 400 L ≈ 4.2%. Phase-3 concept.

Engineering plates

PD1-100 · Top view. Eight rib bays; tank and battery pods oppose each other across the duct so the center of gravity stays on the rotor axis. Eight down-firing nozzles (squares) handle pitch/roll and four tangential (arrows) handle yaw — 12 stations on this 48-in baseline, 8 on the 36, 16 on the 60, every port recessed flush with the skin.

PD1-110 · Side section. The whole duct tilts ±12° on a two-servo gimbal to vector thrust for forward / back / sideways travel while the body stays level — the helium annulus and sensors never leave the horizontal plane.

PD1-120 · Bottom view. Downwash exits the central annulus; landing pads sit outside it so ground effect doesn't tip the craft. The fill port and electronics hatch are reachable without opening the hull. Every nozzle port is recessed — nothing protrudes below the skin.

PD1-130 · Exploded view. Six assemblies, all serviceable: the shells lift off, the He annulus is a drop-in ring, the core chassis carries every heavy component on the rotor axis, and the valve ring unbolts as one unit with its manifold.

PD1-210 · Gimbal detail. Two nested axes, ±12° each, one 60 kg·cm HV servo per axis. Hall sensors on the pivots close the loop so the policy knows the true duct angle, not the commanded one.

PD1-220 · Valve station. One per station — 12 around the 48-in baseline rim (8 on the 36, 16 on the 60). Each nozzle sits in a recessed well with its exit flush to the skin: nothing protrudes and the hull stays smooth. Normally-closed spring return: power loss means the air stays in the tank.

PD1-230 · Duct section. The two numbers that set hover efficiency: a rounded inlet lip (a ducted rotor gains static thrust from it) and a tight, constant tip gap — which is why the duct is rigid and the rotors are balanced before the shell ever goes on.

PD1-400 · Size permutations, drawn to a common scale. Helium only starts paying rent at 60 in — exactly what the lift-per-liter math predicts. The recessed rim ring (diamonds) is standard on every size and scales with it: 8 nozzles at 36 in, 12 at 48, 16 at 60. Every size has a job: the Scout's small payload is still enough to drop a transceiver or locator beacon so the delivery party can establish comms before the heavy lift arrives; the Baseline flies camera and training sorties; the Cruiser hauls the cargo that must land alive.

PD1-410 · Configuration permutations. The highlighted element is what changes; everything drawn in neutral — including the recessed rim control ring on every model (8 nozzles at 36 in, 12 at 48, 16 at 60) — carries over between variants.

PD1-420 · Variable-pitch hub & capacitor-discharge landing — Cruiser-60 only. A Sikorsky-style collective tilts the 24-in blades to chop more or less air at constant RPM. The failure case is why it earns its mass: the instant the flight computer sees pack voltage collapsing it flattens the blades into autorotation — the windmilling rotor back-drives the motors and every remaining watt charges a supercapacitor bank. Baro, GPS and IMU telemetry time the one discharge that matters: at flare height the cap dumps into the motors as the collective bites, trading rotor inertia and stored charge for a touchdown at minimum impact acceleration. Landing policy is payload-first: carrying plasma or rescue gear, the computer steers the glide to the safest reachable spot even when that is farther from the receiver — payload survivability outranks delivery proximity. The 36 and 48 stay fixed-pitch — their rotors don't store enough energy to buy the flare.

PD1-310 · Air path. Working numbers at 120 psi through a 1.5 mm nozzle: ≈1.8 N thrust per station, ≈1.0 N·m of leveling torque at the 24 in lever arm, ≈34 mg of air per 10 ms pulse — roughly 8,000 correction pulses per fill from the 290 g of air the tank holds.

PD1-320 · Electrical schematic. Solid lines are power, dashed are signal. The valve rail is fused separately from the lift rail, so a stuck valve can never brown-out the motors.

PD1-330 · Control stack. One-way trust: the trained policy flies; the Pi suggests at 50 Hz; the ground LLM only ever tunes and reviews. If every link drops, the flight controller alone can land it.