[Paparazzi-devel] Colorado State University Long Endurance Project Update

[Nicholas Wagner]

I haven't posted in a while, but we have made lots of progress on a new airframe for every day use.  The goal of the project is to produce a long endurance man packable hand launch aircraft.  Recently we maidened the airplane and put it in Auto1 for the first time.  Unfortunately because of some trim issues we had a lot of pitch oscillation but hopefully within a weeks time we will have everything sorted out.  Without any further delay here are some videos.

Monday 4-5-10

First attempt hand launching an airplane:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJHMrWltcy4

Second attempt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjzURBxRLws

Aftermath:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2yUffSuJ60

We rebuilt the aircraft all day Tuesday and Wednesday and were out at the field again on Thursday.  We took a lot of material out of the wings to lighten it but it turns out it made the wing not torsinally strong enough causing an aileron reversal.  To fix, we stiffened up the wings with fiber reinforced packing tape.  Hard lesson learned.

Maiden flight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mbEqAVP2-E

Auto1 Porpoising:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIDGsg1iYLo

The goal for the project was to be able to fly for around 4 hours.  The data logger showed a full flight average for the second flight at 36W.  Equipped with 16Ah 3 Cell lipo pack we should see about 4.9 hours endurance.  

Thank you everyone for the time and effort spent on the Paparazzi project!

Enjoy!

--
Nick Wagner
Mechanical Engineering
Colorado State University
E: address@hidden