AIAA DBF URBAN AND MEDICAL TRANSPORTATION VEHICLE

Abstract

In spirit of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics Design-Build-Fly competition, the Senior Design team embarked on an engineering challenge to construct an urban mobility flight vehicle, which focuses on transportation of medical payload from disaster areas. The aircraft was tasked as per the \gls{dbf} rules to be capable of short landing and take-off within a 20 ft range, while providing sufficient payload space for passengers, medical payload, and the crew of the aircraft. Based on these requirements, the choices were to include an airfoil with a high coefficient of lift at low angles of attack. Through a trade study, the NACA 4415 was determined to be the most optimal for the aircraft, with the novel approach of applying it in tandem wing configuration. According to background research, tandem wing aircraft would allow shorter wingspan, which is beneficial for restricted areas, where landing zone might include several obstacles due to a disaster. Furthermore, the tandem wing configuration, while more sensitive to \gls{cg} changes, has a high lifting force due to the wing arrangement, which benefits the increased payload requirements. Unlike the \gls{dbf} competition rules, the aircraft focused on developing a novel approach to aircraft, through additive manufacturing as the main focus on construction, with carbon fiber and wood reinforcement. Due to this unconventional manufacturing choice, the aircraft was light and fast to construct, with the electronic system and two electric motor propulsion providing the operating and thrust capabilities. While the initial simulations and testing showcased a feasible and successfully deplorable design, the flight testing has presented a weakness in last-minute changes, which caused landing gear destructive disassembly during launch, and an instability during a throw launch technique. Despite this unsuccessful launch, the main issues discovered lied within the overuse of 3d printing parts, and lower precision when inserting batteries, which cased bigger offset to \gls{cg}, resulting in instability. With this project concluded, the members had learned the value of prototyping and extensive failure analysis in order to come out as well trained engineers.