Invertedvtail

bat frame

Canopyovernosebatsplante — folds canopy over camera when landing on belly.

The inverted vtail is the most stable design in high crosswinds, it noses up instead of down.

Gentlenav Matrixpilot uav project is preferred for fixed wing because it uses potential and kinetic energy for flight control as per the journal papers by Robert Mahoney. Ardupilot does automated PID control calibration(hour flight) for each specific fixedwing airframe(integral windup), only Gentlenav potential,kinetic energy control(using PD control) doesn't need to do this. A fixed wing has a natural oscillation to it, one sec for a paper plane and several minutes for a boeing. Imagine if the leadscrew of a CNC lathe were constructed out of flexing rubber instead of solid steel, plain PID control won't work. See https://www.youtube.com/c/TomStantonEngineering implementing of Nick rehm flight controller.
https://web.archive.org/web/20130315154332/http://spyplanes.com/ Canopy folds over camera in nose when landing
https://web.archive.org/web/20150630071118/http://jarelaircraftdesign.com/products/uav-fpv-ap-aircraft
https://web.archive.org/web/20170405212855/http://martinuav.com/ Superbat uav. A nose shield flips over the camera during take-off and landings, protecting it. Automated landing is done by landing in a grassfield with two spikes bring plane to a stop, thus no runway is needed. Take-off is by Uav catapult.With the BAT5 design two wheels are attached to the back , while the front replaceable spike is left in place, allowing for very short runway landings. image jpg of batframe from archive save and closeup image of shroud pivoting over camera in nose. See gimbal design for ideas.

Batjp2 — stumps for landing, obviates need for runway.

Police department design

http://blog.sacpd.org/2007/12/06/sacramento-police-exploring-uav-technology/ The front wheel is folded inside the frame after take-off , allowing 360 video . It pivots from the center of the plane to the nose and back. http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1632506

Experimental frame

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/experimental-airframe-goldschmied-pusher

yangda

https://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/2-axis-30x-eo-ir-gimbal-for-fixed-wing-vtol
http://www.yangdaonline.com/eagle-eye-30ie-u-2-axis-30x-eo-ir-dual-sensor-zoom-camera-with-tracking-and-geotagging/
https://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/fw-250-fixed-wing-vtol-plane-with-2-hours-endurance
http://www.yangdaonline.com/yangda-fw-250-fixed-wing-vtol-plane/ YANGDA FW-250 is a reliable and affordable VTOL fixed-wing plane designed for long-range inspection, survey, aerial photography, agriculture, search and rescue and public safety applications. As a fixed-wing UAV with VTOL and hover capabilities, the FW-250 features a modular airframe that can be set up in less than 10 minutes, does not require runway or catapult to get airborne. Once in the air, the aircraft transitions to horizontal flight as a push-prop fixed-wing. Tool-free assembly Due to its modular airframe design, FW-250 can be set up in less than 10 minutes by a single man.

Long flight time FW-250 airframe is using light-weight and high strength composite material, which will enable the fixed-wing plane to fly up to 2 hours with 2KG payload, at an average cruising speed of 75KM/H. Multiple camera options These cameras are compatible with FW-250 VTOL aircraft: Sky Eye-U30 30X zoom camera, Eagle Eye-30IE-U 2-axis 30X EO/IR camera.

25hour flight across Atlantic on 1litre of petrol. Large inverted V-tail design which gives it stability in high cross winds, where other planes won't work. InfraRedLeds#Long_range_IR_illumination or ThermalImagingCameras are built into the air frame for long range night vision. One of the big advantages in favor of inverted V tail designs is its stability in cross wind situations. For an example when hit by a cross wind gust on landing, the inverted V will cause the airplane to pitch up as opposed to diving into the ground. Mounting of the engine at the back of the plane allows for reduced vibration possibilities. Place a Vibration wire rope absorbing material between the frame and the engine, creating a low pass mechanical Vibration filter preventing the high 8khz from interfering with the 8khz resonant frequency of the IMU RateGyro2's. http://www.barnardmicrosystems.com/L4E_atlantic_crossing_I.htm
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/10/armed-shadows/
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/magazine/16-10/sl_ball
http://www.aerosonde.com/ Enya R120
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insitu_Aerosonde
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/inverted-vtail-advantages
http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/photogallery_image/articles/13-mq-5b-hunter.jpg
http://uavkes.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cylg0dxgAE8 or http://www.troybuiltmodels.com/ PenguinB type UAV frame
http://www.mini-imp.com/tail.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-tail not inverted

Other

http://jarelaircraftdesign.com/products/uav-fpv-ap-aircraft
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/introducing-the-albatross-uav-project Great project. You can learn a lot designing your own airframe. Many of your thoughts are spot on correct. Some of them are not clear to a wide range aviation enthusiats, e.g. the advantages of an inverted V-tail. The designers of Aerosonde and the Penguin found the same solution. We designed a similar airframe from scratch, the Y-UAV. Our colleagues nearby designed the UMARS. We designed the Y-UAV for the UAV Outback Challenge. At the end we had a nice airframe but not enough time to concentrate on the more crucial parts of an UAV, like the autopilot or the long range radio link and for system integration. We did not have enough time on the field for testing, training and optimization. In the hindsight the nice airframe was not worth the effort. The airframe is not the crucial part of an UAS. I recommend to buy it off-the-shelf whenever possible. There must be very special requirements to make a custom design pay. Think about the unique selling propositions of your airframe compared to an Aerosonde, Penguin, TechPod or AWK-21. http://y-uav.com/page/
http://www.imes.zhaw.ch/de/engineering/institute-zentren/imes/projekte/leichtbautechnik/umars/technischedatendemonstrator.html