Payload-Carrying UAV

This large payload-carrying UAV was the main project of the Plane Team of my University’s Aerospace club, which I was heavily involved with while I was a student.

The airplane has a wingspan of around 12 feet, and is designed to carry a 15 pound payload on the underside of the wing between the two fuselages. The wing and tail surfaces are primarily extruded polystyrene (XPS) insulation foam, covered with fiberglass and epoxy by vacuum bagging. There are also wing spars made of unidirectional carbon fiber cloth underneath the fiberglass. Aramid fiber cloth strips embedded at the joint between the control surfaces and main wing structure form the hinge joints of the control surfaces. The fuselages are hollow molded carbon fiber with plywood and composite bulkheads.

Our payload airplane project was kicked off when our Aerospace Club’s rocket team wanted a way to drop test their parachutes. I developed the idea of using two fuselages during the early stages of brainstorming for the project, because this layout theoretically allows for a wide variety of payload sizes to be carried.