Sunday, June 13, 2010

The Propulsive Wing UAV


The Propulsive Wing UAV was fabricated exclusively from custom and stock Dragonplate carbon fiber materials. The project began at Syracuse University under contract from NASA Glenn Research Center, and is now being developed for military uses and wildfire prevention. The entire structure of the plane is composed of either off-the-shelf or custom carbon fiber components made by Dragonplate.

For example, the main center bulkhead was CNC cut from honeycomb core. The endplates, end fan mounting panels, and structural support ribs were made from solid carbon of various thicknesses. And internal servo mounts were cut from stock solid carbon angle material. In addition to off-the-shelf materials, the Propulsive Wing also includes several custom Dragonplate components, including specialty foam core tail booms, carbon fiber skinned wings and nose piece, and highly customized solid carbon spring landing gear. The propulsion system for this revolutionary UAV is not propeller driven, but instead is powered by wing-embedded cross-flow fans. Whereas typical cross-flow fans used in the heating and air conditioning field are made of regular plastic, which is relatively weak, the fans used in the Propulsive Wing were fabricated entirely from Dragonplate solid and pultruded carbon fiber to be exceptionally light and rigid, and are the world's only commercially produced carbon fiber cross-flow fans.For more info click here

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