RC Plane Design, Build, and Flight Test

VERSION 1

DESIGN:

  • Designed and sketched aircraft blueprint
  • Created templates for fuselage, main wings, and stabilizers
  • Traced designs onto 20′ x 10′ foamboard sheets

CONSTRUCTION:

  • Cut, scored, and folded foamboard into the desired shapes
  • Folded foamboard pieces around a spacer to create a flat-bottom airfoil for the main wings
  • Created a bevel in the wings and stabilizers to create control surfaces
  • Used hot-glue to attach the structural elements

ELECTRICAL:

  • Cut out inserts in the fuselage to hold servo motors
  • Connected servo motors to the rear stabilizers and main wing control surfaces with pushrods
  • Secured wooden dowels to the pushrods to increase rigidity of the pushrods
  • Mounted a 1360 Kv (1360 rpm per 1 Volt applied at no load) out-runner motor to the nose, and attached a 10″ propeller. Motor was connected to an ESC and all 4 servos were connected to a 5GHz radio receiver. All electrical components powered by a 3 cell, 11.1V, 1300 mAh Li-Po battery.

First Test Flight (V1) and Crash:

(Twitchy, Unstable, Unbalanced – due to Oversized Control Surfaces)

VERSION 2: (Rebuilt for crash tolerance and better handling)

Wing Design:

  • Wing surface area was increased to produce more lift.
  • Entire wing constructed as a single part with a wooden spar, and held underneath the plane for better crash tolerance
  • Control surfaces shrunk to lessen the “twitchy-ness” of the aircraft
  • Aircraft was balanced more precisely to prevent auto-roll to one side while flying

Fuselage Design:

  • Removed horizontal tapering of fuselage
  • Reduced number of folds and cuts to reduce the number of weaker joints
  • Easier to build, and take apart if needed

Landing Gear:

  • Landing gear added for easier takeoff and landing
  • Suspension system made using rubber bands as shock absorbers to reduce stress on the fuselage during landing

V2 Landing Gear Test:

V2 Short Hop Attempt: (Not Enough Rudder and Aileron Authority)

V2 Successful Short Hop Test:

V2 First Successful Flight:

VERSION 3: (Stronger Nose to Handle Motor Torque and FPV Camera and Transceiver)

Aircraft Balancing:

  • Adjusted the balance about the lateral and longitudinal axes to prevent the plane from auto-rolling while flying
  • Used 2 pencils as a fulcrum and adjusted the weight distribution by adding small weights

Propeller Balancing:

  • Balanced the propeller weight evenly to make sure the rotation of the propeller was smooth at higher RP

Propeller Balance Test:

Nose Upgrade:

  • Swapped plastic nose plate for a aluminum plate
  • New nose design and metal plate was much stronger and able to stay undamaged while the motor was running at full power
  • Motor mounted to the metal plate with 4 screws

Nose Cover Fabrication:

FPV:

  • Mounted a small FPV camera with a 5GHz transmitter + antenna using a metal L bracket on the underside of the nose
  • Camera provides a live feed to the connected device for FPV flying

First FPV Flight:

Aerobatic Demonstrations (FPV Camera): Takeoff -> Flight -> Loop -> Roll -> Landing