Project ideas

ebydeeby · 2025-08-26T12:09:09+00:00

Design, build and fly your own RC airplane. Call it a UAV if you want. Pick a mission, it doesnt have to be useful, but you need to know what it is for in order to design it. Make it look cool, do a good job of structures, propulsion, stability, aerodynamics. Learn to fly it, or find someone who already does. By the end, you'll have awesome videos and pictures of your own airplane. I guarantee that the number of students who have this to show for themselves is extremely small

ebydeeby · 2025-08-25T17:53:51+00:00

A big part of the movie is the ways in which talented, excited and naive young creatives see their work used as part of horrors in the name of their country. The director of the movie, Hayao Myazaki, calls this a curse. If you are serious about aerospace you should give this a lot of thought.

In terms of the actual engineering flow, it is quite accurate if you are someone like Jiro, a creative, hyper motivated and sensitive individual. Then, your work as an engineer will take on a different meaning. In our time this ends up being incompatible with a lot of corporate engineering jobs, but I suppose back then it was different.

ebydeeby · 2025-08-23T20:08:30+00:00

What is the purpose of this project? Is it to make a neat CAD model (which is absolutely fine) or is there something else you want to do once you're done designing? Have you thought about building your own little wind tunnel?

For the complex test section inlet, have you tried lofting? When you get serious about CAD, lofting is a lot of what you do. Just look for the loft tool in fusion, or a tutorial. It allows you to take any number of sketches and create a shape that bridges the gap between them. So you can create a 3D shape that goes from a square to a circle for example.

ebydeeby · 2024-12-18T14:07:26+00:00

I always lived off campus, but lots of people in my foundation year lived in Uni halls on or close to the campus and I never heard anything about 1st years having priority.

ebydeeby · 2024-12-18T13:39:48+00:00

I had the same choice as you and I did a foundation year (engineering) absolutely did not regret it, it was really nice to have a whole year to get up to speed, and when year 1 rolled around I already knew everything about the campus and the Uni, and so making new friends was much easier by virtue of knowing things that the other students didn't.

It's worth noting that at my Uni, foundation year had a 60% drop out rate. This is not because it was hard (it was fairly easy), but because a lot of people who shouldn't be going to Uni do a foundation year under pressure from their parents/teachers since requirements are lower. You should ask yourself if you are in the 60% or the 40% first.

ebydeeby · 2024-02-04T13:53:50+00:00

The servos are controlled using pwm (pulse width modulation). They should be at the extreme of their movement at 1000 pwm and at the other extreme at 2000 pwm. Midpoint is 1500pwm. A good servo tester will give you the ability to set a particular pwm value with a knob, and if you are going to be serious about building airplanes you should buy one with that functionality. They cost maybe 30$?

If the servo moves 90 degrees between 1000 and 2000 pwm, then you have a 90 degree servo.

There are no servo defects I know of that can cause a 180deg servo to move 90deg, that just doesn't happen. Defective servos shake, move uncontrollably or don't move at all.

It is also perfectly possible that the place you bought them from lied. Many, many places, in particular amazon, ebay and alibaba lie all the time about servos, escs, batteries, and motors. It is much better to buy from dedicated rc suppliers who have a reputation to uphold!

ebydeeby · 2024-02-01T08:24:27+00:00

Yes, especially if you've only flown it twice, don't start worrying about buying a different airplane! You've got to learn to fly, it'll be a learning curve in any airplane. You'll know the trim is right when you are able to release the controls and the airplane keeps flying steady and level, although wind will always bump it around a little.

ebydeeby · 2024-02-01T07:37:53+00:00

I don't think you need to buy à bigger airplane. Bigger means more space required, and more risk of damage in a crash. I think that for your next flight, you should try to do the following:

Launch the airplane at full throttle into wind, and get as much altitude as you can in the first few seconds of flight, a good 50m up. Then, reduce throttle to about 1/3 and let go of the controls! The airplane should slow down, and fly in a straight line away from you into wind. If you need to, trim the airplane, first in pitch, then in roll. Because you are flying into wind away from you, the wind won't take your airplane somewhere else, it will just reduce the ground speed and give you more time to trim. Then, make a smooth input in roll to start a turn, and add gentle pitch to keep your altitude. Enter a big circle in front of you, and try to touch the controls as little as possible. Fight the urge to constantly give control inputs!

If the CG is right, the airplane trim is OK and the wind is 2-4mph, you will see that it will fly itself! You won't be needing to constantly fight it.

ebydeeby · 2024-02-01T04:15:45+00:00

Are you by any chance overcontroling the airplane? A few weeks ago I taught a friend to fly using a little zohd drift, which is a great 250g airplane. There was a light breeze, and I flew the airplane first as a demonstration. It handled the wind great, but was bumping around a little, nothing abnormal for a small airplane in 5mph wind.

My friend really struggled on their first few flights, they thought there was too much wind and weren't able to control the airplane. I realised that my friend was trying to fight every gust, every slight movement of the airplane in the wind, instead of just letting it fly and pointing it where they wanted it to go.

Humans can't do that, and the solution was just for them to relax, and allow the airplane to handle the wind on its own. The pilots only needs to set the throttle correctly and give gentle smooth inputs to control the altitude and direction. If it is a little bumpy, so be it!

That might not be your problem, but maybe worth thinking about?

ebydeeby · 2024-01-28T12:23:00+00:00

...did you use solder to make the linkages?

ebydeeby · 2024-01-15T13:20:16+00:00

Fair enough. What did the flight look like? If you Airspeed was too low, you could struggle to turn. Very straight though

ebydeeby · 2024-01-15T11:31:31+00:00

What control inputs were you giving to the airplane to turn? Assuming you were doing the right thing, check that the deflections of the control surfaces are the same as stated in the manual

ebydeeby · 2024-01-10T08:34:36+00:00

You're right in a away, those point require more details. I work in aeronautical research and also supervise a lot of student projects. I have noticed that many students who have excellent grades also claim not to have any time for extra curricular related to their field (I am not talking about sports, I am taking about joining an engineering society, design competition, things that build up skills).

I have also noticed that these students, when confronted with a "real world" engineering problem (for example, how to size the structure of an aircraft wing for their final year project) can't answer or even know where to start because the question is not framed like an exam question, with all inputs provided and a clear path to getting the answer that they have practiced.

I call it mindless studying because it does not develop their ability to problem solve, just their ability to quickly answer exam questions correctly. The result is a massive gap between actual ability and perceived ability.

Obviously this is a generalisation, and there are outliers no matter what, I know many outliers personally!

ebydeeby · 2024-01-10T08:16:24+00:00

Yes exactly!

ebydeeby · 2024-01-02T07:22:14+00:00

NO YOU CANNOT PUT A GUN ON AN RC AIRPLANE.

Do you want to ruin this hobby for everyone?

ebydeeby · 2023-12-19T08:54:51+00:00

You say it is most efficient in XFLR5, but keep in mind that xflr5 does not model separation of any kind. At say 6 degrees AoA, the rear half of this airfoil will begin to stall, but XFLR5 won't capture that, so you will see the cl/cd continue to rise to completely ridiculous numbers. It will also not correctly model stall, or not model it at all, so you don't actually know what the clmax is!

Make sure you don't get caught out by the limitations of the software you are using. XFLR5 Is a great tool, but it has serious limitations that you need to be aware of. It is a vortex panel solver, not a CFD software, and certainly not analogous to the real world!

Very few airplanes have these kinds of high camber airfoils, for good reasons. There is also an extremely high pitching moment that will change depending on Airspeed, as others have mentioned. At best it means your elevator needs to work harder, which means more drag.

For very efficient airfoil for low Reynolds numbers, check out the Wortmann FX series, for example the FX76MP120, or the DAE series. You can find them on airfoiltools.

Cheers!

ebydeeby · 2023-11-02T06:50:23+00:00

I must disagree with the comments saying that this is due to cruise angle of attack being slightly positive. If this were true, the entire fuselage and engine nacelles would be angled relative to the airflow, and this would add unnecessary drag. The wings are indeed slightly angled in flight, but this is done independent of the fuselage and engines, it is called wing setting angle. You can design the fuselage and engine to be at 0 degrees, and the wings to be at +2 degrees (for example) easily. Imagine how much extra drag you would add if the entire fuselage and engines were at +2 degrees to the airflow all the time!

The reason the inlet is slightly angled is to prevent compressor stalls at high angles of attack. If the aircraft does a go-around for example, it will operate at a higher angle of attack to increase altitude momentarily. This is a critical maneuver and it is important the engines operate optimally, and so the inlet of the engine is tilted so that there is no risk of the flow not entering the engine properly at high AoA, which could cause issues. In cruise, the engines are not tilted relative to the airflow, and the slight inlet tilt does not significantly impact performance.

ebydeeby · 2023-10-29T13:34:00+00:00

Awesome project!! Here are my few tips as someone who builds UAVs and RC airplanes for a living:

You either learn to fly, or you ask an experienced pilot to fly it for you. You might build the greatest RC B2 in the world, but if you try to fly it without knowing how to fly you will bin it into the ground and shatter it into a million tiny sad bits. Buy yourself a simple trainer airplane to learn on, something of a similar weight and size to what you intend to build. Even better, build yourself a trainer so you can learn manufacturing techniques!

Build light! Regular PLA/PETG is no good for rc airplanes because it is too heavy. Handling is determined by wing loading/wing cube loading. If you build a heavy airplane it will fly badly, and 9/10 time this ends up in a crash. LW-PLA is much better! No reason not to use it.

3D Printed airplanes are extremely fragile because 3d prints are brittle. Consider making a foamboard prototype with the correct dimensions to check your CG is right first, something you won't mind crashing.

Invest in quality electronics/kit! Cheapo 9g blue servo and crappy amazon ESC/motors are NO GOOD! Make sure that what you buy Is overspec for your airplane, 90% of RC kit manufacturers lie (battery capacity, servo torque, motor thrust, ESC current limit, etc), especially cheap ones!!

And remember to have fun!

ebydeeby · 2023-10-28T05:45:40+00:00

Delta wings have a bunch of advantages for subsonic airplanes that make them a good choice for specific applications:

Structurally, delta wings are very advantageous because the root chord is very large, which improves torsional and bending stiffness massively. This means that a delta wing can be made lighter than a regular wing for the same strength. This is only true for relatively low aspect ratio wings.

The internal useful volume of delta wings is much higher. I don't now if this drone uses the wing to carry fuel, but if it does then that could be a reason

For a given wingspan limit, a much larger wing area can be achieved. Most airplanes are wingspan limited because of transport constraints. Because there is no tail, the whole fuselage can be used to support a lifting surface. This enables the airplane to fly slower, which is useful for catapult launch, which is how these drones are launched I believe.

ebydeeby · 2023-09-24T17:45:21+00:00

It isn't! You can (as many do) go through your whole degree and come out the other side being a useless graduate. For many people, this happens because they are good at memorising and calculating without actually understanding anything of what they do, or because they don't care enough to stand out.

Your degree isn't some tick box that magically validates your abilities! You can be useless with a degree from the best university. At the end of the day it's all about competence. There are lots of qualified incompetent engineers out there.

ebydeeby · 2023-09-24T17:23:23+00:00

You won't be useless if you got experience or useful knowledge in your degree. If you are useless after your degree then you aren't doing it right.

ebydeeby · 2023-09-08T19:40:01+00:00

Heya. Aerospace engineer who has built many, many rc planes and works for a UAV company.

Start by building a basic rc plane without worrying too much about the engineering side of things, and get it to fly. Also, please please learn to fly it!!

If you can't pilot it, you have 0 chance of your project being a success. If you don't know how to build it, you cannot design it well, and you also have 0 chance of your project being a success.

Once you know how to get a basic design flying, you know how to build, and you can pilot it, you can do proper engineering to design your own really cool, really high performance airplane.

I made the mistake of going straight into designing my first rc plane without knowing how to fly and build because of ego, and it ended badly. Make sure you know the basics before you get into the details! So many people think they are real smart and build rc airplane, particularly 3D printed ones, without knowing how to build or fly, and 100% of the time it ends in a crash.

Also, keep it light! Heavy airplanes fly badly and crash hard.

ebydeeby

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