Flight test is a tough business. Even more so when every second airborne requires near max physical exertion!
I hope these students get their structure fixed and get back in the air soon. This is some really great work. Their vehicle only weighs 71 lbs.
Check out their record setting human-powered helicopter endurance flight.
Here's a bit of theory on why the students got the results they did on their structural optimization study. You can always get a stiffer structure by adding more thinner bars. Related to this recent post on open source tools to do this sort of optimization.
ReplyDelete"micro truss" technology: replace beam elements with trusses made of smaller beam elements, Gamera II Airfram Structure
DeleteInteresting paper on 'multi-scale' structures: Ultralight Fractal Structures from Hollow Tubes
DeleteUltralight Metallic Microlattices
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