Grid Based Construction of a Composite Micro Air Vehicle Airframe

Abstract

The development of a light-weight composite Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) airframe incorporating a novel foam grid based design into Glass prepreg composites is presented. Various combinations of advanced materials are judiciously utilized in different structural configurations to realize diverse requirements in the airframe. Advanced manufacturing techniques such as rapid prototyping, water jet cutting and autoclave curing ensure accurate conformance to the complex contour as well as precise tailored distribution of structural mass. The foam grid based design approach using Glass composites ensures low mass, provides stiffness in multiple directions, imparts crashworthy features and eliminates the problem of electrical leakages. Good correlation between analysis and static test measurement of wing deformation is found. Various issues in the development of a lightweight MAV airframe pertaining to design, tooling, fabrication, testing and analysis are discussed.