Design build and fly: A student approach to the creation of an RC drone for university competition

This article presents the activities carried out as part of a technical-educational initiative which involved numerous aerospace engineering students from the University of Pisa. This initiative consists of the study and creation of a drone, according to pre-established technical specifications, with which the students themselves will participate in the international Air Cargo Challenge 2024 competition which will take place in AACHEN (Germany). The students involved, about 30 units, were divided into subgroups based on the planning of the activities: CAD modelling, aerodynamics, structures, flight mechanics, electronics and propulsion, manufacturing, business relations and associates, media. The drone project had to comply with the tender specifications which require the disassembly and transport of the aircraft inside a box of pre-established dimensions. Other constraints concern the completely electric propulsion system: the type of batteries, the type of engine to be used and the maximum electric current with which to drive the engine. Once the drone configuration was chosen, the aerodynamic study was initially conducted with calculations based on methods extracted from the technical literature subsequently refined through Computational Fluid Dynamics and Finite Element analyses. A similar approach was followed for the definition of the structural layout and for the analyses of the aero-mechanical characteristics of the drone. The main structures of the drone, fuselage, wings and tail planes, are made entirely of composite material. The team designed the molds for the hand lay-up of the components and directly took care of the production and assembly of the drone’s structures. During the production phase, all flight control systems were obviously integrated as well as the substructure containing the payload envisaged by the tender specifications. Finally, flight tests of the drone were finally carried out in preparation for the actual race. In addition to the technical aspects, the team of students organized events to disseminate their activities, also aimed at young students from local technical high schools. Overall, the initiative, although very demanding, allowed a group of young engineering students to conduct an important training experience from a technical, scientific and human point of view.