Manufacturing Process and Flight Testing of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with Composite Material

Abstract

The manufacturing process of lightweight and strong (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) UAV and composite aircraft flight testing capability is described in this research. Nowadays, UAV development becomes more creative and high technology. Mapping and monitoring process from a UAV will be more effective and efficient. Mapping and monitoring process needs high durability UAV so that development with lightweight and strong material is needed. Lightweight technology is very suitable applied in the UAV technology. The composite material has many benefits for an aerodynamics world. The composite material was made of fiberglass and resin, and this material was used in components that are not loaded to high loads. The aircraft industry uses fiberglass composites widely because of the stiffness, strength, and toughness of composite.This research was conducted by manufacturing an aircraft with a fiberglass composite. The first manufacturing process was making a master prototype from styrofoam and then the styrofoam master was used to make a mold. The next process is called hand lay-up in which fiberglass and resin were laid to the model to produce half side of the aircraft. The process refined by vacuum bag to obtain a thin, flat, and good surface of the aircraft. Aircraft flight testing is needed to obtain statistical of the stability in pitch, roll and altitude, so the data result will determine the feasibility of composite aircraft in this research. The flight data have shown that the aircraft has high stability on roll and pitch.