I worked as the structures team-lead for the USU 2018-2019 Design/Build/Fly capstone project. The aircraft was required to fold its wings to fit within a 3' span, carry deployable stores, and take-off from a 10' long ramp. Our final design was built from balsa, MonoKote, and carbon fiber spars/booms. Some of the largest challenges of this project included:

• Airframe size and weight, largely due to battery weight (LiPo batteries weren't allowed yet)

• Take-off and landing a 22 lb. airplane

• Developing foldable and deployable wings

• Manufacturing design iterations for testing and development (3 prototype and 2 competition)

The structures team was responsible for designing, testing, and manufacturing a reliable airframe that was capable of meeting the aerodynamic and propulsion requirements set by the project.

Through my education and research I have worked on a few different flight simulation projects. This work includes both the development of my own Python based flight simulator and integration with the open-source FlightGear flight simulator. Some of the concepts I have learned through this work include:

• Six DOF equations of motion and alternate methods of formulation

• The Euler-Rodrigues quaternion formulation and quaternion algebra 

• Numerical integration of the quaternion formulation 

• Control input response, nonlinear aerodynamic effects, and inertial and gyroscopic coupling 

• Flight SIM integration with hardware systems for complete system demonstration

As part of the Aircraft Dynamics and Flight Simulation course at USU, we were required to add additional phsyics and graphics elements to our flight simulator. I developed my flight simulator into an RC flight simulator with these modifications:

• Additional pilot view angles and options

• Aircraft and object interference

• Landing forces and aircraft shadow tracking

• Visual elements for an RC field runway, sky, trees, and pilot station

GitHub project: https://github.com/Troy-AAbraham/RC-Flight-Simulation