Completion Date
1-2020
Advisor(s)
Paulo Iscold
Abstract
A wing drag measuring device known as a drag rake was conceived, built, and tested to support the flight test of the Nixus Sailplane project. This device improved upon existing drag rake designs by incorporating a self-contained microcontroller that logged drag rake data and broadcast that data wirelessly to a WiFi equipped smart device in real time. By being entirely wireless, the drag rake can be quickly mounted to any aircraft and does not have any wires that must run long distance to the cockpit affecting the aircraft’s aerodynamics. After the end date of the grant, the completed drag rakes will be used for flight testing on the Nixus Sailplane and will be available for testing wing drag on other aircraft. Akaflieg SLO members will gain real-world experience with flight test and flight test instrumentation. Code for the microcontroller as well as design documentation will also be finalized and published as an open-source project for groups interested in building their own drag rake.
URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/bkendowments/93
Copyright
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.