DESIGN

About

After analysing the customer requirements and the technical requirements and weighing them against each other in the House of Quality or the QFD, the team was able to come up with ten subsystem that reached each requirement. Each subsystem was analysed and each team memeber came up with one design per subsystem. The designs were placed in a Pugh chart and Decison matrix, where the team analysed each one, combined them and came up with three preliminary designs. These designs were again analysed by the team and a final design was chosen. The final design was a hybrid of designs 2 and 3. After analyzing the final desgin the Aero Micro team decided to redesign the final design, making the design more stable. The 2nd Design Iteration, is the result. Extra structure was added at the back of the fuselage to ensure balance and stability. The fuselage itself was shorted, and internal ribs were added. The wings are styled after the NACA 4415 airfoil. After the team began building the aircraft there were several design choices that were changed. The team is taking an active iteration process throughout the building process. The first change made was the landing gear. The previous material was borrowed from previous teams, however the design and material was too heavy. Therefor the team bent thin metal rods into a zigzag pattern that laid flat against the bottom of the fuselage. This was done to dispurse the landig forces across the fuselage and not have them focused in one location. The second major change is extended fuselage. Current it is made of 3mm Depron foam, in the shape of a square tube. Inside the tube are several wooden and foam ribs to add support. Making the extension out of foam cut down a massive amount of weigh. This overall reduction in weight was a major factor for the successful take off and landing.