1. Lyutyy (Fierce) is what the Russians call a #drone that has been burning up their #oil refineries and storage depots. Ukraine has been striking deep into Russia seemingly at will. What is this drone that is doing so much damage?
2. The only official photo of this drone is a desktop model complete with a cat & flowers. However, it turns put this model is quite accurate. It has a 3-blade pusher propeller with a twin-boom V-tail. Cooling intakes on the sides suggest a boxer engine.
3. Videos of attacks provide additional details. Most of the design features seen in the model are present. In addition, there appears to be winglets and a long pitot tube. There may be a pod under the nose (perhaps a camera).
4. A video of a crash provides a more details. Two dark bumps on top of the engine cowling are the air filters confirming a 2 cylinder engine. The propeller hub sits high and there appears to be a drive pully. Unidentified bits are on top of fuselage.
5. A different crash provides more insight (as found - no footprints). The tail broke off and is in front of the nose. There is no sign of the left wing. There is a good view of a winglet. A coupler & (possibly) longer boom differs from the other crash.
6. During the crash, a spark plug boot punched through the cowl. As one might expect, the colour & construction of the wing is very similar to the Beaver. Note how the propeller sits above a drive pulley.
7. The engine looks a lot like a Hirth F23. This is a 50 HP 2 cylinder with a belt speed reducer. The speed reducer also positions the propeller high in the aircraft. Note that there are various options for this engine including fuel injection.
8. There is not much of the nose remaining. Note the complexity of the engine cowling. It carefully curves around the exhaust and includes cooling air intakes. There are also bumps on top, possibly clearance for the fuel system or carb heat.
9. This drone had written on it, “warm greetings to the Lipetsk Metallurgical Plant”. This is a very large steel plant that was also struck by drones on February 24.
10. The Lyutyy has some similarities to the Beaver but is much larger and more advanced. For example, Lyutyy has a complex engine cowl while the Beaver has no cowl. There is attention to small details, like fairings where the tail booms attach.
11. A video of Lyutyy in flight suggests it is very stable. It has also been extremely successful at attacking targets deep in Russia. The drone in this video hit an oil refinery.
12. The airframe looks great. Ukraine has used these with skill. Attacks on refineries looked perfect with smooth turns before a terminal dive. These attacks were extremely precise.
13. Lyutyy is big enough to carry a useful payload 1000 km but small enough to be made in large quantities. With these, Ukraine can seriously dent Russia’s exports as well hurt them militarily.
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1. Various russian news outlets showed detailed images of a #drone captured by russia's armed forces. It turns out the drone is russian not #Ukrainian. Oops.
2. This drone has a number of distinguishing design features that identify who made it. The fuselage is made from plywood using rather nice joints and the fuel tank is slung underneath in an open frame. We seen this style of aircraft previously.
3. On December 7, 2023 I posted a thread on larger but similar russian drones. These had similarly designed and constructed plywood fuselages (note the joints). One drone also had the fuel tank slung underneath in an open frame.
1. The #Ukrainian company Steel Hornets has been working on interesting munitions for Ukraine’s #drones. These include incendiaries that burn but do not explode. An interesting feature is that these munitions start burning as soon as they are dropped. t.me/steelhornets/2…
2. Here is a test of thier largest incendiary. The yellow stuff pouring off the plate is molten metal. This device quickly melted a hole through an 8 mm (0.3”) thick steel plate. 👀
3. Here is a test of the munition being dropped from a large Baba Yaga drone. Notice how it starts burning when released. It is designed to be released from heights of 30 m (100 feet) or less. It can also be attached to a kamikaze FPV drone. t.me/steelhornets/2…
1. Strategic bombing from balloons? Ukraine is using low-cost balloon technology combined with modern electronics to bomb Russia. A few of these balloons crashed thus providing a better look. Note that the following photos are a mix from different crashes. t.me/azimut_31/375
2. The balloon is a long black cylinder filled with either helium or hydrogen gas. Hydrogen can lift more weight and is much cheaper. The payload is distributed along a string beneath the balloon.
3. This photo gives a better idea of the payload. There is a pop bottle followed by a container holding the controller electronics. Next in line is a tracking device. At the bottom is a munition.
1. Russia claims to be a #superpower and demands the world tremble at their petulant utterances. Sadly, many powerful people dutifully comply. Let’s have a closer look at a weapon deployed by the mighty Russian military. Specifically, a fixed-wing kamikaze #drone.
2. An interesting feature is the fuselage formed from two aluminum tubes. The wing is made from foam with a span of roughly 2 m. The wings are very simple with parallel leading and trailing edges (constant chord).
3. The wing contains two wood spars and wrinkles confirm it is made from foam. Possibly cut with hot wire and then coated with heat-shrink film (RC plane builders, please comment). Note the motor speed controller attached with zip-ties and batteries taped down.
1. Possibly a new Ukrainian #drone has been located in the Oryol Region of Russia. Note that this drone is not a Lyutyy (Fierce). This drone has a high wing while Lyutyy has a low wing.
2. The mediocre image quality will make evaluation more difficult. There are many curious details including how the exhaust is mounted. These will take a while to sort out. Better images would help.
3. Google translate says these labels are Ukrainian. Can Ukrainians please confirm this?
1. An ExpressLRS receiver on a Ukrainian drone is made by BetaFPV & is unremarkable except for one detail. It seems to have a Ukrainian Trident symbol, strongly suggesting it is custom made. The only reason for this would be to avoid EW by operating at a non-standard frequency.
2. The circuit board looks a lot like a standard BetaFPV 915 or 868 MHz receiver but it is missing the wifi antenna & associated components.
3. Note that it is trivial to program the LoRa integrated circuit (SX1276) to operate at different frequencies. However, the matching circuitry between the chip and antenna must be designed to operate at that frequency. The antenna must also be designed for that frequency.