End of Week 4

Week four is now in the books, and although meetings between each respective group have been primarily moved to Fridays in order to simplify things, quite a lot was accomplished. Notebooks have been acquired in order to allow us to tabulate what we accomplish every group meeting, any questions we have, and what we need to accomplish in subsequent meetings. This is being done in the hope that any member that misses a meeting can simply look through the previous entries and be caught up to speed. Other than that, the following was achieved in week four:

• Airfoils/Air Frame
• Finished the wings for the test plane
• Mass of the 1st wing with rods: 147 grams
• Mass of the 2nd wing with rods: 79.1 grams
• Ailerons were reattached
• They were also synchronized with the controller
• The tail was attached to the back of the plane
• Hot glue, toothpicks, and paperclips were used to bind things together
• Note: Hot glue was tested on the foam prior to any gluing. It seemed to bind two pieces of foam together even if one of the pieces was covered in tape. Separating the two pieces by simply pulling them apart did not go very well, however, so we will need to find a way to separate anything glued together that does not harm the pieces being separated
• Finished the frame for the test plane







• Mass was measured to be 113.9 grams
• Engine was mounted into the front of the plane.
• Propulsion
• Determined the thrust given off by the propeller-motor system using logger-pro and a more accurate apparatus
• 1.1 +/- .1 Newtons
• Note: The thrust increased when the wires powering the motor were put in parallel. This test yielded more than twice the thrust noted above.
• The best results for this test were found using a regulated power supply.
• Propeller-motor system: 155.7 grams
• Speed controller: 36.3 grams
• Radio: 15.4 grams
• Actuators: 10.2 grams each
• Note: there are 4 on the plane
• Actuator rods: 3.1 grams each
• Note: there are 6 on the plane
• Power
• Successfully charged 20 nC batteries
• 1.37 +/- .02 Volts
• 1500 mA
• Took 30 minutes to charge 8 cells
• 45.7 grams/8 cells
• Successfully charged two 16 packs of batteries
• We measured the voltage to be about 10.5 Volts, although the packaging said 9.6 Volts
• 800 mA
• 183.7 grams/packet





Celina and Axel contemplating how accurate their
apparatus will be
Week five will focus on the following:


• Airfoils / Air Frame
• Look into building wind tunnel if we can't get access to Aero Dept
• Design testing rig for in the wind tunnel to gain lift and drag components from wing
• Get rockets for sizing and design consideration
• Complete optimization of scoring formula
• Analyze three designs for testing
• Power / Propulsion
• Determine NiCd vs NiMh
• How long will battery last at full power (20 amps)
• Feasibility of splitting into two packs for multiple engines
• Look into placing ducted fans in series (turbine)
• Entire DBF Team
• Fly the test plane!

Note to all members

Team leaders will be chosen for each respective team next Friday. They will be chosen through a group vote. Also, anything that is done in the lab relating to the project must now be recorded in the notebooks that were mentioned at the beginning of this blog.

End of Week 3

Week three is now over, and looking back on it, quite a bit was accomplished. Our first fundraising activity was an utter success. Our entire stock of tamales was sold even after restocking it twice, thereby yielding the funds required for some of the supplies that we need. Other than that, the following was achieved in week three:

• Power / Propulsion

• Acquired more NiCd batteries from Professor Mason
• Continued to test batteries for output
• Disassembled F-18 model and took the servos and electronics for use on this project
• Purchased 40 Amp brushless speed controller
• Dual BEC and advanced programming
• Dimensions: 50mm x 26mm x 10mm
• 20 gram mass
• Purchased propellor motor
• Neodym 480-900 kV motor
• More information on this and other Neodym products can be found at Neodymmotors.com
•  Purchased propellor
• Dimensions: 9 inches x 6 inches
• Determined the thrust being put out by new propellor-motor system using logger-pro
• 1.1 +/- .1 Newtons
• Note: 11.1 Volts and 1.13 Amps were used to power the system
• Airfoils / Airframes

• Developed a new wire cutter to allow bigger pieces of foam to be cut
• Continued building different types of wings
• It was determined that the tips of the wings should not be too thin, as the wire cutter seems to butcher these ends when cutting through the foam
• Began work on building a working trainer model
• Frame drawn, cut out, and sanded
• Ailerons cut out
• Continued work on optimizing the scoring function to determine the best design

Week four will focus on the following things:

• Power / Propulsion

• Determine NiCd vs NiMh
• How many cells for 1.5 lbs
• How long will battery last at full power (20 amps)
• Feasibility of splitting into two packs for multiple engines
• Determine how we will mount engine onto trainer model
• Continuing testing of prop vs ducted fan
• Look into placing ducted fans in series (turbine)
• Airfoils / Airframes
• Look into building wind tunnel if we can't get access to Aero Dept
• Design testing rig for in the wind tunnel to gain lift and drag components from wing
• Test wings that we have built using whatever wind tunnel we get access to
• Get rockets for sizing and design consideration
• Complete optimization of scoring formula
• Analyze three designs for testing
• Finish the plane body for the trainer model

 

End of Week Two

The first week is in the books and it was a productive one!  We were able to recruit a lot of help and volunteers continue to show up as the word spreads.  At last count we have 30 members plus 3 advisors on board!  We have divided the group up into four teams, each with their own focus: Power, Propulstion, Airfoils and Airframe.  The meetings times for now are Monday and Wednesday at 12:00 and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 2:00.

Week two accomplished the following things:

• Power
• Obtain NiCd batteries from Professor Mason
• Begin testing batteries for output
• Propulsion
• Fabricated a testing apparatus to obtain thrust values from different systems
• Began testing on an electric ducted fan
• Airfoils
• Hand sanded a wing from scratch
• Designed and built a hot wire foam cutter (learned to appreciate it compared to hand-sanding)
• Airframes
• Worked on optimizing the scoring formula to determine best design
• Looked through different existing designs

 

Week three will focus on the following things:

• Power
• Determine NiCd vs NiMh
• How many cells for 1.5 lbs
• How long will battery last at full power (20 amps)
• Feasibility of splitting into two packs for multiple engines
• Propulsion
• Continuing testing of prop vs ducted fan
• Look into placing ducted fans in series (turbine)
• Look at different prop designs
• Airfoils
• Continuing to perfect the hot wire cutting technique
• Build different wing types for testing (symmetrical, flat-bottom, under-camber, etc)
• Look into building wind tunnel if we can't get access to Aero Dept
• Design testing rig for in the wind tunnel to gain lift and drag components from wing
• Airframes
• Get rockets for sizing and design consideration
• Complete optimization of scoring formula
• Analyze three designs for testing

Week three will also be home to the first fundraising activity.  We will be selling tamales and drinks as well as any baked goods that anyone wants to bring.  This money will go towards buying some of the supplies that we need.