Category: Uncategorized
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Solar Installation
Originally the plan was to build a new airframe (MK3) for the first solar test flights. This would give a “fresh” airframe (foam board planes fly marginally better when new with no small wrinkles in the paper) and I could use what I learned from building MK2 to build a better and lighter MK3. However…
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Battery Building
When choosing a battery the main consideration was maximizing energy density by weight. Current output was not really a concern as the number of cells needed in parallel to have the desired capacity would allow current output far beyond what was needed. This lends itself to Lion batteries, and more specifically the 21700 formfactor. The…
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MK2 High Aspect Ratio Wing
A plane’s efficiently is directly related to the aspect ratio of the wing. This is because a long thin wing has very little induced drag, or the drag produced from the creation of lift. MK2 was initially designed around the 2 cell wide wing, to maximize wing surface area for solar cells at a reasonable…
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MK2 Basic Design
After Mk1, it became obvious that a much larger aircraft is required to carry the weight necessary for solar cells and a large battery. Mk2 was designed around the 2 solar cell wide wing, with a 96 inch wingspan. It was designed around a twin boom pusher airframe so the wing did not have to…
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MK2 Wing
The MK2 wing was designed to carry 2 rows of Sunpower C60 cells. This wing used a KF (Kline–Fogleman) airfoil, an airfoil built out of flat steps that create vortexes, affectively mimicking the shape of a more traditional airfoil. The solar cells can sit behind these steps in order to not need a covering material.…
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Foam Board Construction
Dollar Tree foam board was used because of its relative light weight, stiffness and because it is what I have the most experience building with. I learned to build with foam board while building designs from flitetest.com, who have developed extensive techniques for building airframes with this material. Compared to Depron, a popular alternative, Dollar…
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MK1
The goal of MK 1 was to test autonomous flight on a plane built with foam core design. I chose to use Mateksys autopilot components running Ardupilot because I liked the price and weight, as well as the form factor with a built in PDB. MK 1 was loosely based off of a design for…
Solar Plane Project 