Multidisciplinary Design of a Human Powered Aircraft

초록

Design of a human-powered aircraft poses an interesting problem due to its very narrow solution space. All aspects of aircraft design, not only the conventional disciplines such as aerodynamics, structure, propulsion, and control, but also fabrication, flight testing, transportation, and budgeting, must be taken into consideration. Majority of the aircraft that competed in the past Human Powered Aircraft Competition hosted by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute have been designed with relatively thorough analyses of individual disciplines. However, these analyses are not well integrated, and there exists a wide variance in detail and fidelity among the different disciplines. In this preliminary work to design the human powered aircraft for Inha University team, an integrated approach is used. Instead of relying on sophisticated analysis tools, undergraduate level basic theories will be utilized to the maximum extent to demonstrate educational values in addition to the design process itself. Wing span was determined by the typical maximum dimension of the ground transport vehicle. To compensate for relatively small main wing area, a lifting tail configuration was adapted with a large horizontal tail. During the aerodynamic design process, special attention was paid to ensure all the computed parameters lead to trim condition. It is not trivial to align three parameters that are optimal lift coefficient, reasonable static margin, and pitch trim especially under ground effect. This aerodynamic loading is coupled with the wing deflection because the amount of dihedral plays an important role in estimating the induced drag and affects the pitch trim. Power train matching among propeller, drive mechanism, aircraft, and the human that acts as the engine was the main focus for the propulsion system design. Other design details and considerations will also be presented. The final design is a light and compact aircraft that can be flown by an average amateur cyclist.