PFR - Aerospace Engineering Sciences Senior Design Projects ...

Project Final Report – CUDBF April 30 th , 2009
ASEN 4028: Aerospace Senior Projects
127. The blue line represents the predicted value, and the red line represents the actual value.
These values are accurate to within +/- 1 amp as specified by Eagle Tree.
60
50
Power Draw
Actual
Predicted
Amp Draw (amps)
40
30
20
10
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Time (seconds)
Figure 127: Actual versus predicted amp draw on flight test #6
The propulsion team assumed that the pilot would fly at the same cruise power setting regardless
of aircraft weight, and would end up flying faster with the empty aircraft. As it turned out, the
pilot decided to fly at the same cruise speed, and therefore flew at a lower power setting during
empty flights. Overall, flight test #6 was a very successful flight in which takeoff speed, landing
speed, top speed, and average current draw were all tested and shown to be very close to the
predicted values.
13.2.2.6 Flight Test #7 and 8
The goal of flight test #7 and #8 was to fly the aircraft with a full rocket payload. In flight test
#7, the aircraft was flown with a payload of two symmetric rockets (3.0lb of total payload) in
order to assess the aerodynamic flying qualities and aircraft performance at a higher weight.
Another goal of flight test #7 was to fly a competition style lap and verify it using the GPS
receiver. The GPS coordinates were recorded and plotted on Google Earth. An image of the
competition lap is shown in Figure 128.
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