Motor Air Vehicle

Group 1Jacky, Osama, Eddy, Abdul, Michael,

Serge

Objective

Our objective is to build a motor air vehicle that can sustain flight for five minutes and complete several figure 8 loops during that time. The MAV must be under 450g including a 20 camera. It must be able to take off from the ground and land without human contact. It also must be able to fly for at least 5 minutes without needing to replenish its power source

GSW Slow-stick Frame

The GSW slow-stick features a lightweight frame. It has foam wings that span approximately 114 cm. The motor, battery, and servos are exposed. The fiberglass and foam body make it light and require little power to achieve lift off.

Part Description # needed Cost, $

GSW Slowstick frame Plastic and fiberglass frame with foam wings,rudder, stability, and elevator 1 28Radio transmitter and receiver Plastic and metal controller and matching receiver, used to control aircraft 1 0Brushless motor and servos pack motor and servos are made from plastic and metal, used to power and control aircraft 1 19.99replacement motor used to power aircraft after fist motor mount broke 1 10trainer aircraft 9g fully assembled plane used for learning how to control a RC aircraft 2 70battery lithium battery, plastic 1 6.99

Total cost 204.98

Slow-stick parts

Camera Mount

Our camera mount broke as it fitted too tightly on the fuselage. We ended up using one given to us by Professor Kung

Elevator

Fuselage

Horizontal Stability

Leading Edge Wing Support

Motor Mount

We found that the motor mount would slip off of the fuselage easily even when attached. We ended up shredding the motor when the motor mount slipped off the fuselage during a crash. The crash also broke our propeller.

Tail Gear Support

Trailing Edge Wing Support

Rudder

Cutting the 45 degree angle on the rudder was difficult due to the nature of the foam. The foam did not give a very clean cut and often broke away in chunks rather than a clean slice even when a sharp knife was used.

Vertical Stabilizer

Test Flying the Trainer

Pros and Cons of Trainer

• Very light weight• Hard to fly in any wind• Fairly easy to control• Easily breakable• Parts disconnect easily• Battery pack does not stay attached to plane

The trainer did help us to gain basic knowledge of how to fly a plane but lacked some of the controls used by the slow-stick. Transitioning between the two was difficult as they used different methods of taking off as well as steering. The trainer was much easier to fly than the bigger more sophisticated model.

Gantt Chart

Building the PlaneDuring the build we found that the instructions were badly translated and did not help us after the initial steps.

The plane did not require extensive tool to put together, but some parts were apparently missing. The motor mount did not come with a way to attach it, and the connectors provided were the wrong size. We also found that we had several parts that were unused and not referred to in the instructions.

Pictures of the finished plane

To check for center of mass we drew a line 10cm away from the leading edge and attempted to balance it to observe where the center of gravity was. Our plane was poorly balanced (heavy on the back) so we had to move the receiver to the middle and slide the wing back a bit.

Pros ofSlowstick

• Pros• Easy to assemble once the steps are apparent• Most parts are included in kit• Easy to find compatible parts• Relatively low cost

Cons

• Instructions are hard to understand• Motor dislodged from fuselage and broke,

requiring us to buy a new motor and propeller• Parts missing from kit/ extra unneeded parts• No instructions for assembly of motor and

propeller• Easily damages• Hard to control

Conclusion

We succeed in creating a MAV that fit the requirements given us. We found that the MAVs are fairly fragile and ended up having to replace parts on both our trainer and GSW Slow-stick. We also found that both planes took awhile to learn to control.