A part of an undergraduate project, it is essential to understand the design process of an aircraft. The one-year project aims to design and fabricate a remotely controlled (RC) aircraft that is equipped with stabilization system. The work starts from the preliminary design process, i.e. sizing and weight estimation and airfoil selection. This is followed with the identification of important aerodynamic parameters. The identification uses several methods such as vortex lattice method and computational fluid dynamic analysis. The aerodynamic parameters are determined the performance of the aircraft and identifies the type of propulsion system needed. The stability of the aircraft uses linearized method to identify the stability characteristic of the aircraft. A prototype was built using low-cost materials and an off-the-shelf auto-stabilization system was able to stabilize the aircraft during the flight test. Post flight-test analysis are also conducted for verification.
Department of Aeronautical, Automotive and Ocean Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia
