CThurstonPA
New Member
Hey there! First forum post, happy to be here!
I participate in a an aerospace design competition in high school, and this year's challenge is to design a UAS for agriculture. The competition is based entirely on design (CAD etc), so we won't be physically building anything
Anyways, I was wondering if I could get some advice on how to select for airfoils? I think this year's challenge really boils down to the fact that it's essentially a reconnaissance mission, so we're looking to maximize speed (climb rate, cruising speed, etc) to the extent possible. We also may have the capability to fly pretty high (a few thousand feet) given our camera options (catalog issued in the challenge). I think going with high lift and a small engine or low lift and a big engine are two possible ways to go--though everything scales with the size of engine for us, so there is a trade-off there.
Weight will probably be less than 55 pounds given FAA regulations.
So, yeah, suggestions/advice? I think perhaps some sort of low Reynolds number/high CLmax/proper L/D ratio would work... but I'm not sure how to precisely go about finding and narrowing down selections given our design considerations.
I participate in a an aerospace design competition in high school, and this year's challenge is to design a UAS for agriculture. The competition is based entirely on design (CAD etc), so we won't be physically building anything
Anyways, I was wondering if I could get some advice on how to select for airfoils? I think this year's challenge really boils down to the fact that it's essentially a reconnaissance mission, so we're looking to maximize speed (climb rate, cruising speed, etc) to the extent possible. We also may have the capability to fly pretty high (a few thousand feet) given our camera options (catalog issued in the challenge). I think going with high lift and a small engine or low lift and a big engine are two possible ways to go--though everything scales with the size of engine for us, so there is a trade-off there.
Weight will probably be less than 55 pounds given FAA regulations.
So, yeah, suggestions/advice? I think perhaps some sort of low Reynolds number/high CLmax/proper L/D ratio would work... but I'm not sure how to precisely go about finding and narrowing down selections given our design considerations.
