Modification of an Aquila unmanned air vehicle

• Main Author: Stewart, John E. C.
• Other Authors: Howard, Richard M.
• Language: en_US
• Published: Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10945/7550

The requirement exists at the Naval Postgraduate School Unmanned Air Vehicle Laboratory for an air vehicle capable of carrying a 60 pound payload. To that end, an air vehicle from the canceled Army Aquila program was modified to become the payload carrier. The modifications involved designing and building landing gear and an empennage. The landing gear design consisted of determining the anticipated loads and designing a structure to withstand those loads. The construction process was comprised of building the required molds, forming necessary components and, where possible, adapting existing items for use in the landing gear. The empennage design consisted of determining the unmodified air vehicle stability characteristics, determining the desired stability characteristics, determining the load acting on the empennage, and sizing the empennage to provide the desired characteristics and withstand the loads. The empennage construction process was comprised of cutting the required shapes, fashioning the required structural members, assembling the structure and fiberglassing the structure. The modified vehicle awaits an engine and other components required to make it operational.