Virginia Tech AE/ME Morphing Wing Project

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Virginia Tech AE/ME Morphing Wing Project

• Final Presentation

April 24, 2003 VT AE/ME Morphing
Wing Team 1
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Team Members
AE Members Laura Arrison Kevin Birocco Chuck
Gaylord Brandon Herndon Kathleen Manion Mike
Metheny Chris Johnston (Grad Student)
ME Members Michael Cummins Robert
Forrester Nicholas Hanak Tae Kwon Mathew
McCarty Marcus Tepaske David Neal (Grad
Student) Leonard Wiggins (Grad Student)
Sophomore Members Caroline Hutchinson (ME) Greg
Wargo (EE)
April 24, 2003 VT AE/ME Morphing
Wing Team 2
3
Presentation Outline

• Development of team
• RFP, Project Goals, Mission
• The Delta Vortex building, flying
• BetaMax building, flying
• Calculations
• Plane comparison
• Instrumentation
• Data collection and analysis
• Future work

April 24, 2003 VT AE/ME Morphing
Wing Team 3
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Development of Team

• Continuation of 2001-2002 AE/ME Design Team
• Build upon the strengths of last years team
• Learn from their experiences

April 24, 2003 VT AE/ME Morphing
Wing Team 4
5
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Design a full flying delta wing with morphing
capability to provide a comparison to a
conventionally controlled full flying delta wing
aircraft.
April 24, 2003 VT AE/ME Morphing
Wing Team 5
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How to Accomplish RFP

• Purchase and build an existing radio controlled
  conventional flying delta wing
• Instrument kit plane to record flight data
• Fly the model to obtain data
• Design and build a full flying morphing delta
  wing
• Instrument the morphing aircraft
• Fly morphing wing and record flight data
• Compare data from the two delta wings

April 24, 2003 VT AE/ME Morphing
Wing Team 6
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Project Goals

• Successfully design, build, and fly a morphing
  delta wing
• Analyze flight results from each plane and
  compare find out what worked, and what didnt
  and most importantly why

April 24, 2003 VT AE/ME Morphing
Wing Team 7
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Mission Drivers

• Feasibility
• -Complexity
• -Number of Designs
• -Building/tweaking time
• Cost
• Time
• -Eye on the prize flying a morphing aircraft

April 24, 2003 VT AE/ME Morphing
Wing Team 8
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Selecting the Delta Vortex
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The Delta Vortex Building
The Delta Vortex took about 2 months to build
with 5 people working. It was ready to fly in
mid November. The plane is primarily balsa wood
covered with Monokote.
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The Delta Vortex Flights
1st flight December 17, 2003 2nd Flight March
14, 2003 3rd Flight April 13, 2003 4th Flight
April 19, 2003
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The Delta Vortex Take Off
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The Delta Vortex Loop and roll
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The Delta Vortex Vertical climb
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The Delta Vortex Landing
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BetaMax Building
Wings retracted
Wings extended
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BetaMax Morphing Mechanism
The wings extended and retracted using a rack and
pinion method driven by a servo
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BetaMax Morphing
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BetaMax A Few Calculations

• Neutral Point, xn
• -VLM 4.997
• -method outline in Etkin as initial check
• Center of Gravity, xcg
• -given for Delta Vortex
• -calculated for Beta Max planforms to give Delta
  Vortex static margin
• -No cg-shift mechanism

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BetaMax Static Stability
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BetaMax Flights

• First Flight
• April 13, 2003
• Second Flight
• April 19, 2003

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BetaMax First Flight
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BetaMax First FlightWhat Went Wrong?
BetaMax (version 1.0) vs. Delta Vortex

• 50 heavier
• 30 less elevon area
• 5 more statically stable (harder to rotate)

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BetaMax First FlightHow Did We Fix It?

• Removed balancing nose weight twofold effect
• Lightened plane by 2 lbs
• Moved cg further back, lessening static margin
• Constructed new elevons with 11 more area than
  those of the Delta Vortex

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BetaMaxVersion 1.0 vs Version 1.5
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BetaMax Runaway Plane?
Nope, Just Kevin tackling the plane to save the
day..
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BetaMax Take Off
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BetaMax Flying
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BetaMax Landing
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Plane ComparisonHow are they Different? -
Dimensions
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Inviscid Flow Analysis
Tornado, a Vortex Lattice Method for
Matlab http//www.flyg.kth.se/divisions/aero/softw
are/tornado/
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Cruise Conditions
20 m/s at 2000 ft
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Range Estimates

• Constant velocity, propeller propulsion range
  equation
• Differences L/D ratio, weight
• Assume 0.5 lb fuel usage

Estimated 19 increase in range
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Span loading
Delta Vortex
BetaMax (retracted)
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Pressure Distribution
Delta Vortex
BetaMax (retracted)
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Lift Coefficient Comparison
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Plane ComparisonHow are they Different?
Instrumentation Location
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Plane ComparisonHow are they Different?
Instrumentation Location
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Instrumentation

• Pitot tube/Pressure Transducer Airspeed
• Accelerometers Forces on body
• Angular Rate Sensors Body angular rates
• Potentiometers Elevon and Throttle positions

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Instrumentation Devices

• Crossbow AD2000 Data Logger
• Crossbow 4g Triple Axis Accelerometer

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Instrumentation Devices

• Analog Devices 150/s and 300/s Angular Rate
  Sensors
• 3 Radio-Shack 5KO Potentiometers

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Instrumentation Devices

• Dwyer standard model 1/8 pitot tube and Dwyer
  pressure transducer
• Signal Conditioning Circuit

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Data Collection Accelerometer
The second successful flight of The Delta Vortex
gathered the necessary data from the
instruments.one problem
Unfiltered Acceleration Data (Delta Vortex Flight
on March 14th)
Filtered Acceleration Data (Delta Vortex Flight
on April 19th)
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Data Collection Entire Flight
Analyzing the entire time history of data is
unfeasible due to the high frequency nature of
the data
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Movie Time

• Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show ?

• Delta Vortex Vertical Climb
• Delta Vortex Loop and Roll
• BetaMax Roll and extension of wings

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Data AnalysisDV Vertical Climb
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Data AnalysisDV Loop and Roll
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Data AnalysisBetaMax Roll and Wing Extension
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Data Analysis

• Data has been obtained by both planes
• - Instruments are working correctly!
• Similar flight paths have not been flown
• - Therefore data from two planes cannot be
  compared
• Flights planned for this weekend to obtain
  performance data from both planes for similar
  flight path

April 24, 2003 VT AE/ME Morphing
Wing Team 49
50
Summary Comparison to RFP

• Build and fly a conventional delta wing
• Gather performance data from conventional delta
  wing
• Build and fly morphing delta wing
• Gather performance data from morphing delta wing
• Compare data

X
April 24, 2003 VT AE/ME Morphing
Wing Team 50
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Future Research

• Develop multiple flight paths to be flown by
  both aircraft
• Use data from these flights to compare aircraft
• Time to roll 90, 180, 360
• Climb rates
• Fuel consumption (range)
• Estimate short period damping, natural frequency
• Etc

April 24, 2003 VT AE/ME Morphing
Wing Team 51
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THANK YOUQuestions/Comments/Complaints?
April 24, 2003 VT AE/ME Morphing
Wing Team 52