The challenge for 2014/15 is the development of a competition UAV for the Design/Build/Fly contest. We are only aiming for the best results, therefore our main focus was to optimize the UAV according to the competitions rules. We identified the following key requirements for the aircraft:
- fast loading and unloading of the wooden payload
- fast loading of the balls for a dropping mission
- minimization of servo usage
- lightweight construction to increase efficiency
Electrics
To achieve a flight time of more than 5 minutes, the battery pack is a its limit (as defined by the rules). The needed power for the aircraft is delivered by two powerful electric engines. The propulsion unit will provide a thrust force of approximately 50N in total. All servo engines and steering devices were reduced to a minimum in order to improve our score for the competition.
Fuselage
The requirements for the fuselage are to carry the payloads for three different missions, a mayor part of the electric devices and to provide a central link for the wing, empennage and landing gear. According to our main goals, the fuselage had to be as light as possible. To fulfill all these requirements the fuselage is designed out of carbon fiber reinforced composites.
Wing
The wing is the central component of every aircraft. Therefore a lot of effort was but into the development of this component. We are very confident that we found a good combination for the task. Using fiber reinforced composites in combination with other lightweight materials, the key tradeoff between structural weight and strength has been met.
