Aircraft Design and Piloting

Halfway through my sophomore year, I got into a selective course at my school called Aircraft Design and Piloting. The title alone intrigued me, and since it related to my future aspirations, I was very excited to start this class.

This course was heavily male-dominated. I was in a class with around twenty-seven boys, and one other girl who was often absent. As the only female person of color in the classroom, I was worried about how I’d fit in and about expressing my ideas, but my concerns were quickly dispelled just a few days into the course. This was a challenging class that required strong cooperation. My classmates were incredibly kind and open-minded, allowing us to all work together efficiently.

By the year's end, I was deeply grateful for the community I had found, along with the newfound knowledge I knew would help guide me to success.

First Aircraft - FT Mini Trainer

  • Being our first project, each of us partnered together and followed a guide by Flite Test to create our plane. We followed a premade blueprint that was cut out with out laser cutter, and assembled it piece by piece.

  • Using a software called cgCalc (Center of Gravity Calculator), we were able to see just how different aspects would affect how our plane would fly. This served mostly as an introduction to the website, as it would be very important for our second project.

  • This is the base of our aircraft. In this photo, I was in the process of connecting the wire that would connect the motors to the elevator. This process took a lot of precision, but once everything was in place, it did its job quite well.

  • We had noticed some weak points on our wing after we assembled it, so we reinforced it with duct tape as a temporary solution.

  • Here, we had begun adding colored tape to our aircraft. The main purpose of this was to better help us navigate it while it was in the sky. The white base color makes it difficult to spot, so the red tape on the bottom and the black tape on the top tells us which side its facing. Additionally, it adds a small layer of protection to the plane.

  • The final product!

  • Top view of the final product.

  • Bottom view of the final product.

Flights with the FT Mini Trainer

To control our aircaft, we used RX/TX controllers. I had never used these types of controller before, so it took me a bit to get a hang of the controls. As you can see in this video, getting it to glide in the air gracefully was difficult.

This was a few days later, and I’m starting to show some improvement with my guidance of the aircraft. It was blocked in the video, but the aircraft took a sharp turn and was about to plunge headfirst into the ground. Luckily, I was able to recover it at the last minute and have it land on its flat side.

This was another great flight; you can even hear the motors moving as I control them. This definitely could have gone a lot smoother, but this was a great personal improvement.

Second Aircraft - Glider

  • Unlike the mini trainer, we had no guidance on how to build this aircraft, so we needed to be strategic about how we went about it. Before getting into any of the computer design parts of this project, we needed an idea of what we wanted. This was what our sketch looked like at the start.

  • This was the same sketch after using cgCalc, doing research, and considering various aspects that would improve the flight of our aircraft.

  • Using cgCalc, we finalized our proportions and made sure everything was in place before starting to build.

  • In order to cut out our pieces on the laser machine, we needed to use Fusion 360, a 3D design software, to outline a cutout that will be sent to the machine.

  • Installation of the rudder.

  • Finished installation of the rudder and elevator.

  • Finished assembly of the aircraft.

  • This is the final result (after a few flights), in the front compartment is where we keep the battery and wires controlling the motors. On the wing, we added black tape to help us better identify which side is facing us while the plane is flying. We used a sleek, high-quality tape for this aircraft.

  • A close up of the inside of head of the aircraft.

  • This is the underside of the plane, showing where we keep the motors that are controlling the elevator and flaps.

  • This occurred after one of our flights, the rubber bands holding the wing to the head cut through the material. Luckily, the process of creating a new wing was quick since we already had the blueprint.

Flight with the glider.

I had very bad luck flying this aircraft; most of my flights were horrendous crashes. Since my partner, Fernando, and I had decided that he would get to keep this plane while I kept the FT Mini Trainer, we mutually agreed that he would do most of the flights, ensuring he’d get it back in one piece.

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