Aircraft Design: Glider, UAV and VTOL
Designing the club's next aircraft from first sketch to flight: a mini glider and UAV, a more efficient wing developed with CAD and CFD, and a VTOL airframe.
About this project
This track covers the design loop the club follows for a new airframe: set the mission (payload, endurance, field size), size the wing and tail from first principles, model it in CAD, check it in simulation, then build, fly and measure. Each design is documented so the next batch of members starts from real flight data instead of from scratch.
The work starts with a small hand-launched glider, which is cheap to build and quick to repeat, and grows into a powered UAV and a VTOL airframe that takes off like a multirotor and cruises on its wing.
What the team is working on
- Design, build and fly a hand-launched mini glider, then a powered UAV on the same layout
- Improve aerodynamic efficiency (lift-to-drag ratio) by comparing airfoils, wing taper and tail sizing
- Develop a new wing in CAD and check it with CFD before building it
- Design a VTOL airframe (quadplane or tilt-rotor) that takes off vertically and cruises on its wing
Tools and technologies
- Fusion 360 / SolidWorks
- XFLR5
- OpenVSP
- CFD (ANSYS / OpenFOAM)
- Balsa & foam build
- 3D printing
- ArduPilot QuadPlane
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