Fixed Wing 2025

Owned by Daniel Puratich
Last updated: 2024-09-27
2 min read

Introduction

  • Name

    • Eclipse

  • High Level Specs

    • 1.5 m wingspan

    • Max takeoff weight = 5kg

    • 6S Battery Voltage

      • ~1.1kg of batteries

      • two 6S packs in parallel

    • Modular wings & fuselage

  • Purpose, Quantity, & Timeline

    • High Level

      • Pursue the primary purpose for roughly a full year with this plane and then hand it off to other subteams for learning in the secondary purpose before decommissioning

    • Quantity

      • A single aircraft will be built (and maintained in the unlikely event of damage)

    • Primary purpose

      • learning how to design fixed wings → mechanical skills

      • learning how to operate fixed wings → ardupilot & pilot skills

    • Secondary purposes

      • Custom battery long term? Could be saved for VTOL depending on EE interest​

      • flight testing bench for EE and EFS new CAN architecture. ​

      • testing EFS milestones milestones​ M2 and M3

      • testing EE ZP3 hardware designs

  • Budgeting

    • Will be less expensive than fancy composites

    • Will be more expensive than hacked together foam planes we’ve done in the past

Related Resources

Mechanical

All mechanical design documents can be found in 2024 Post-Season Fixed Wing Mechanical Decisions Documentation

  • Wings

    • A row of balsa ribs mounted on an aluminum box tube. The ribs are spaced by 3D printed leading edges

  • Airframe Design

    • Main doc for airframe design. Main aluminum mounting plate which accommodates 90% of electronics, and the motor

    • Tail boom and wing spars attach to the main plate

  • Fixed wing landing gear

    • Tail dragger design → 2 wheels at the front and 1 at the tail

    • Plan is to make the tail wheel steerable for yaw control on ground at low speeds

  • Empennage Design

    • A conventional tail configuration with 1 servo each for elevator and rudder

Electrical

Electrical Components

Electronics System Diagram

Electronics Placement Diagram

 

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