Potential Solutions to Integrating UAS into National Airspace

Introduction

Getting drones into controlled airspace has been a topic that has been swirling around the FAAs discussions ever since the past few years when flying has really picked up. Some of the greatest agencies in America and other countries have attempted to come up with solutions for maintaining safe flights while also allowing the freedom that flying allows. NASA has developed a potential UAS traffic management (UTM) system that has the potential to allow for safe tracking of UAS inside controlled airspace. The FAA has also developed test sites in order to test potential ideas. The Netherlands even has integrated UAS into their airspace!

NASA's UTM system

NASA has proposed two systems under the UTM system. One a portable version that is smaller and designed for the agricultural fields that use drones today to spray solutions onto their crops. This would solve a large issue for the agricultural side of UAS ops. The second design was for low altitude operations that are much more varied by nature. the benefit of this system though is that it is always monitoring and will be able to detect all ops within its range, whereas the Ag solution is more for small business and only detects when it's on and only for a small area. 

Testing Sites

These tests were initially ordered by Congress for the FAA to prove that they could successfully monitor UAS platforms while they were in controlled airspace. Initially, they found that many states were interested in testing, and about half of the US submitted their own proposal for them to be chosen as a site. If this didn't find anything in the testing it at least discovered how much of a demand there is for UAS platforms to be allowed into the national airspace and should encourage further testing.

Netherlands Airspace

For a long time, the Netherlands had shelved the idea that they could incorporate UAS into their current airspace. A study was developed in 2001 with the Delft University of Technology and the Netherlands Ministry of Defence where they have addressed many of the issues of having UAS platforms enter their airspace. They have currently elected to do so gradually and go through each phase step by step to ensure that both sides of the situation are covered and one side isn't limited unfairly.

Conclusion

By looking around and taking what works from many things and combining them together, sometimes you get something greater than the sum of its parts. As this problem is super complicated and raises a lot of issues the best thing that can happen as of now is to wait for solutions to be developed. As there already have been many of the major problems covered by various countries and programs around the world, it'll only be a matter of time before we can fully integrate UAS into national airspace

Potential Issues with UAS integration into national airspace

Introduction

When trying to add something into the already crowded airspace today provides a lot of potential challenges. Even something like a rocket launch causes flights to be rerouted just for that brief point that it must travel through controlled airspace. Integrating something like UAS provides its own unique challenges, size, flight characteristics, and safety all will impact the industry.

Size

Drones come in many shapes and sizes, Some only about 5 inches while others are as big as small aircraft. This provides its own challenge as most of the time the pilot is scanning the airspace that they are traveling through with there eyes. Seeing something that is 5 inches while traveling at close to 150 mph is next to impossible, and for a pilot, if you can't see something you can't avoid it. This provides challenges in spotting for something like a quad that wants to travel through controlled airspace. Developing ways to combat this is one of the first steps that are needed in order to integrate UAS into the national airspace.

Flight Characteristics

As a typical airliner takes off they fly something called point-to-point. This means that when they leave they leave the congested airspace to fly to another airport with congested airspace. As drones typically have a limited flight time they are more likely to stay close to an airport like a GA aircraft. This means that they are more likely to add to the congestion that the airport is already facing making jobs like air traffic controllers more difficult as they have to continuously route aircraft around the unmanned vehicle. 

Safety

A potential issue that affects drones is the risk of a total communications loss. This would impact the data coming from the drone and the data going to the drone. Data like position data coming from the drone telling both other aircraft and the pilot where the drone is is extremely dangerous. As stated previously drones are already not very large aircraft and not being able to know exactly where the aircraft is puts anything that is in the air around the aircraft at risk. Another point on this is the fact that even if the pilot could get video the controls wouldn't work in this case as well, making flying the aircraft impossible. This can be mitigated with proper fail-safes in place that will direct the drone on what to do if communications are lost. 

Conclusion

These three points are some of the most important points that must be considered when adapting the modern airspace to one that will allow for drone flights. Usually, the military is used as a stepping stone to help see integration practices but in this case, they aren't helpful. Military drones typically operate in a segregated airspace away from manned ops, and they even let drones fly over soldiers as the data that they can record from a battle is more likely to add to the success of the mission then provide issues.

UAS use durring a virus epidemic

Introduction

When the world is in a lockdown, limiting where the public may go and what they can do many people sit around bored with nothing to do. As something as simple as physical contact becomes something to spread fear its a struggle for some to get the things they need and in a timely manner. As many people have and use drones they can also be something used to just enjoy the lack of people around. As safety is the number one concern bystanders walking around a busy city would make it a very dangerous flight, something that a quarantine produces is a distinct lack of people out on what would be busy streets allowing for some creative drone footage that otherwise wouldn't have been able to be captured.

Deliveries

As mentioned earlier being locked inside all day every day does create some issues. As food supplies run out and simple necessities run out a quarantined citizen will be forced to head out into the infected world. A way to elevate this and minimize the spread of disease would be getting your products delivered, although this also has its own effects. The logistics of getting vehicles to homes with the supplies that are needed while also not being used to spread the infection can be challenging and many companies have sprung up attempting to do this. The benefit of using something like a drone is the ability to fly the supplies to people in need with 0 human interaction. This allows for a minimal chance of the disease to be spread while still allowing for the needs of citizens to be met. As many commercial drones are smaller with limited lifting capabilities, this has become more of a trend on social media to just deliver a note or roll of toilet paper and not real necessities but is definite proof of concept for what the future will hold.

Deserted City Footage

As everyone is locked in and forced to stay at home some of the most crowded places are finally empty. This is one of the biggest concerns when flying a drone as no one wants a drone to fall out of the sky onto someone. With this deserted appearance to the cities, it can create a surreal experience while still allowing the pilot to have a safe flight with minimal people below. 

Tracking infected and uninfected

As some cities got hit by COVID differently they all have used drones differently. The Chinese government had drones up with thermal imaging cameras in order to track people with elevated body temperature, a known symptom of COVID. Some US cities are using them in a slightly different way by attaching loudspeakers to the platforms and using them to shame people out breaking the quarantine.

Silly Tasks

As mentioned drones can also provide some enjoyment when hit with the quarantine boredom wave. People are using them to keep a safe distance but also socialize. Some attach notes and fly them to people on balconies while others used them to walk their dogs while not breaking quarantine. The possibilities to use drones to help with this quarantine boredom are only limited by the imagination of the pilot.

The History of UAS

Introduction

Unmanned aerial vehicles have come a long way. The first one a basic RC like aircraft that had simple controls and was used as target practice for gunners and pilots to practice shooting down targets during WW2 called the Kettering Bug. Many of these unmanned aircraft didn't even have sensors for data gathering until later. 

Post-WWII UAS

As the jet age loomed with the end of WWII the technologies had to adapt. The Ryan Firebee was similar to the Kettering Bug but was instead a jet-powered version. This was used in the same way as the Kettering Bug as target practice but was more accurate towards the current times simulating a Russian Mig or other jet aircraft. This was imperative for training soldiers as most of the military aircraft was turning towards jet power. 

As the cold war started to build there was a large concern with the number of subs that the USSR was able to produce. In order to combat this, the US military developed an unmanned helicopter with a TV camera that helped spot subs from the air. These being relatively cheap and easy to make they become a sort of disposable device to use when detecting subs.

As the cold drove on the U-2 spy plane was created for intelligence gathering over the soviet union. As the flights increased in frequency the USSR was furious and would try everything they could to shoot them down. Eventually, they succeeded and shot one down in 1960. This lead to the development of the Ryan model 136. A U-2 like aircraft that was unmanned and intended to be used for the same purpose, although it was canceled due to the SR-71.

Although the US had these new intelligence-gathering methods development on UAS platforms continued. A newer Firebee was designed and used in intelligence missions over Taiwan. This platform was called the FireFly and they flew 160 missions. Initially, the success rate of these aircraft was quite low and made it quite difficult to recover the data that they were gathering. This was due to a parachute and recovery system that didn't keep the vehicles intact and destroyed the data that they gathered because of this. As the wrinkles were ironed out the success rate increased and the missions continued.

Conclusion

UAS platforms of the present didn't just appear overnight. They had to be developed and tested extensively in order for them to function correctly. As with the creation of GPS, the military was the best group to do this testing as they had the budget and the expertise with developing cutting edge tools and devices to protect the US. As the technology moved to a more civilian area the building blocks that were learned with the Firebee, and FireFly. Without these aircraft unmanned systems as we know of today wouldn't exist or at least in the same way.

The C-Astral Bramore

Introduction

When it comes to stable platforms for aerial data gathering there are very few that come close to the C-Astral Bramore. The platform that we have at Purdue is the PPX variant. This particular wing has a downward-facing sensor bay that can house a multitude of different sensors that can help with data gathering. 

Features

Aircraft

The Bramore PPX is an auto-piloted UAS platform with limited manual capabilities. The Bramore's ability to gather data while also being able to fly for almost 3 hours makes the aircraft an invaluable asset for data gathering. The aircraft's onboard flight controller allows it to fly the programmed route without the need for human correction and the only occasion where one might have to interact with the drone is in an emergency. It is launched with a catapult that quickly accelerates it to its flight speed where the engine can catch it and fly the aircraft. It lands via a parachute which allows for very short landing zones (weather dependant) which can help land the aircraft in tight areas where other fixed wings would struggle.

Sensor

The sensor for the Bramore is very powerful, at 42.2 megapixels it allows the pilot to gather data almost to the centimeter level. The other option that we have available is the Altum Multispectral which "sees" in 5 bands, 2 of them outside of the human spectrum. This is very useful when it comes to data gathering as filtering according to the band type will allow you to see things that your eyes originally wouldn't have seen.

Ground Station

The ground station is where all of the programming for the Bramore's flight happens. It is as easy as drawing a box over the area and the computer will automatically plan a route to cover the area in the least amount of passes. As mentioned previously the manual controls are limited but this is because of the excellent ground station. Allowing the PIC to manage what the aircraft will do through failsafe if a dangerous situation occurs. There are a multitude of things that the aircraft has the ability to during a failsafe, it can loiter in the area, return to the home point or even just deploy the parachute if the situation is very dangerous.

Conclusion

The Bramore PPX is a very powerful high-end UAS platform that gives you what you pay for. With a price close to $80,000 you get a platform that can fly for about 3 hours and give you data that's so accurate you could practically take your measurements for a suit with the data.

Understanding Crew Resource Management

Introduction

Flying any aerial platform can require many tasks to both ensure the safety of the flight and ensure that the data is collected properly. As there can be many different tasks to perform it is also helpful to have multiple people around to help with those tasks. This comes to an important fact of "too many cooks in the kitchen" and when safety is the number one thing it is important to have set rules and boundaries for crew members to be able to successfully complete the flight without overstepping. This is why crew resource management (CRM) is so important.

What does CRM do?

CRM in its basic form is like a job description for all crew members so they know their jobs. This keeps members from overstepping and keeps everyone focused on their task so that all the resources of the flight are used in the best way possible.

Pilot-in-Command (PIC)

The first and most important job is the pilot in command. They are in charge of all aspects and what they say goes. That being said their most important job is the safe completion of the flight and they should never do or tell anyone to do something to compromise that fact. The PIC is the person who flys the aircraft much like a real pilot. Their job is to focus their energy on maintaining the flight and providing the opportunities needed for the sensor operator to do their job

Sensor Operator (SO)

The SO is the person who is second in command, almost like the co-pilot of the mission. Their job is to operate the sensor and gather the data required for the flight. Usually this involves conversations to the PIC and it is important to allow this communication to take place without interruptions such as bystanders talking over this conversation. The visual observer can be used to help regulate this and keeping bystanders quiet, this allows for the PIC and SO to solely focus on the flight.

Visual Observer (VO)

Although it's not the most important job, nor the one with the most authority, it is still an important task that is fulfilled by this person. The VO is in charge of watching both the drone and the operating area around the drone. They should alert the PIC if there is ever anything that enters the area that can impact the safety of the flight. They also are in charge of keeping any bystanders from impacting the flight in any way that would cause the flight to no longer to be safe. 

Safety Culture

In any aviation setting the number one thing that is stressed is safety. There is nothing that could ruin a fun day of flying like someone's hand getting caught by the prop or having a drone hit someone. This important fact is something that is woven into the very fabric of the society that aviation has formed. This sole reason is why the PIC's main job is maintaining the safety of the flight and keeping everyone safe. Just like how a pilot is responsible for going around a full-scale aircraft and inspecting it before a flight to ensure that it is airworthy the PIC must make sure that the drone that they are commanding is airworthy and doesn't have anything wrong with the aircraft. A common saying by the FAA is that every regulation that they have is written in someone's blood, or simply someone died and they made a rule to prevent a disaster similar. This gave birth to the safety culture that is around aviation and why safety is so important.

Conclusion

By using CRM a flight crew can manage the risks of a flight properly and can help keep the flight safe and able to be completed. CRM creates defined roles that will keep everyone in line and doing what they are supposed to be doing.

Using Drone Racing League to learn how to fly a Quad

Introduction

This blog is going to use a more casual atmosphere as it is my personal experience learning how to fly a drone and less on the informative side.

Simulators are something that full-scale pilots use to get practice on an aircraft. They might be learning the aircraft for the first time, trying to experience a specific failure or just practicing. Either way, they are not at an actual risk to the public, and they aren't risking a potentially very expensive fix if the plane does crash, obviously as it's digital. This same method is what caused me to turn to the Drone Racing Simulator (DRL) available on steam. This "game" allows someone to connect a controller to their computer and control a digital drone in the same way that one would in real life. 

Learning How a Quad Works

The Tutorials

I have had minimum experience flying real quads when I came into the program. The most experience I have had is using a DJI Mavic Pro, a very stable and popular platform for many beginners and professionals alike because of how easy it is to fly. This was great to build a little confidence with an aircraft but I was still very nervous to fly it due to its extreme cost and lack of experience. So I jumped on DRL and started up a few tutorials in the basic flight mode. This made the quad behave exactly like a DJI Mavic Pro, locking the max tilt allowed and stabilizing itself for me when the controls were released, something the Mavic does too. As I build up about 5 hours of flight time on the basic controls I quickly wanted a little more of a challenge and switched to the intermediate mode and intermediate tutorials. This locked your maximum tilt but wouldn't self stabilize and after many crashes, I started to get the hang of it. Though I quickly realized that although it was called the intermediate mode I found the full acro mode easiest to fly and dodge obstacles because of the ability to move the drone 360 degrees in all directions, allowing for the force from the motors to point in any direction. Figure 1 is of the flight modes in DRL and their descriptions. At this point, I had put in about 10 hours total into the sim and had built up a bit of confidence.

Figure 1: The start menu before you go into a game with the modes listed

Rates

The next thing that I had to tackle was the rates, for a typical gamer this is like the sensitivity, allowing me to do flips very quickly or slowly based on the values. The starter values that DRL used were pretty slow and made learning the controls easy as a small bump wouldn't spin me in a random direction and confuse me more as I was trying to learn them. As I got more confident though I wanted the ability to do quick flips and cool maneuvers like you see on youtube. A friend ended up giving me values that he uses on his freestyle drone so that I would have a starting point to get used to and to feel what it would be like to fly one of his drones. These rates were much more sensitive and a simple full stick maneuver to one side would send the drone into countless flips. This was more to my liking and I quickly became accustomed to the rates after a few hours of freestyle flying. Figure 2 is of my current rates in DRL.

Figure 2: My personal rates

Cruising around

One of my favorite things in DRL was the size of the maps, having played quite a few video games in my time a typical map like in Call of Duty or similar game is usually pretty small. It was to my surprise that the maps in DRL were very big, some having a shipping center complete with cargo containers and a container ship, and a forest with a city nearby... all on the same map. This provides a fantastic experience being able to fly around between many different areas without being struck with a loading screen. It was about this time as I started building about 30 hours behind the sticks that I was getting pretty confident and starting to figure out the cool and complex aerobatic maneuvers that one will see when they type in "freestyle fpv" on youtube.

Racing

As I became more and more confident (around 40 hours) I started to race on the digital courses that they have available. As the sim is a racing simulator there is no shortage of tracks of varying difficulty and allowed me to become pretty good at racing. Although the process took a long time and I was constantly beaten by my friends who would also race alongside me in the lobby I slowly build more time up and soon started getting competitive to them at around 75 hours of flight time in the game.

Conclusion

It was around the 50-hour mark of flight time that my friend allowed me to try flying one of his real freestyle quads that he was going to be decommissioning soon, so he wasn't that big of a deal if I broke something, this defiantly made me a little less nervous, but I was still pretty nervous to go out there and fly something real around. I can happily report that in the 2 batteries that I flew that day I didn't crash once, although landing was "interesting" as that's something that you don't have to do in DRL and in all my hours of practice I didn't think of practicing that. 

I can confidently say that I am pretty decent with a quad now and I can say that it is all thanks to DRL and allowing me to build confidence behind the sticks without risking an actual drone.

Using Mission Planner to plan a mission

Introduction

Mission Planner is a powerful software. It allows you to program a flight controller that is set up properly around a field or area without ever touching the controls. It is pretty simple to set up a mission and once the mission is made it can be easily sent to the aircraft via a micro-USB or a radio telemetry device that plugs into a USB and allows your computer to wirelessly communicate with the platform even while it's in the air. 

Missions

Start

First, the home point must be set, this can be done easily if you have your drone with its GPS on and plugged into your computer by simply clicking the Home Location word over the 3 blank boxes, otherwise you can grab the home point on the world map and move it to the right location. It is highlighted in the red box in Figure 1. The last important thing is to set the altitude that the takeoff needs to fly to, this is under the Alt portion of the waypoint and is blue in Figure 1, here you can see that I set it to 100 ft.

Figure 1: Home

Adding Waypoints

To add waypoints along with your mission simply click along the map to add them, if you wanted to change what a waypoint meant you would have to just select the drop-down and change it accordingly. There are many options like loitering or deploy a parachute. Figure 2 is if I set up a small mission and had it loiter for 2 turns and then change its speed to max throttle. 

Figure 2: The Custom Waypoints

Finalizing the mission

Finally to finalize the mission you must tell it to land at some point. This is easy enough by using the drop-down and selecting land on the desired waypoint. The full mission can be seen in Figure 3. According to the mission the aircraft will take off at the corner of the goldfields at Purdue and fly along with the parameter. When it gets to waypoint 2 it will circle 2 times before continuing. This will allow the pilot in command to visually check that the aircraft is flying correctly and the mission can be safely continued. Next, it will change its throttle to 100% and fly to waypoint 4 (as 3 is the throttle increase). It then will turn and head over to the north end of the field to land.

Figure 3: The Full mission

Conclusion

Finally, in order to get mission planner to tell the flight controller the mission, you must click on write WPs (waypoints), where it will then transfer the flight plan to the flight controller and you may start the mission in real life. 

Setting up a Maytek F405 Flight controller

Introduction

When setting up a flight controller it is very important everything is right. This is the device that will be controlling the flight (duh that's the name). Any screw up in this phase of set up to a plane might mean that it nose dives into the ground and shatters all your hard work. So it is very important to set this board up correctly the first time, as it might be the only time. Safety is key when setting up your board and as it is possible to have an input swapped or to accidentally check a random box and the motor could spool up, you should always disconnect the prop when working in Mission Planner. This will keep you the safest possible and not be risking serious injury

Set-Up

Flashing

A few programs are needed to start this off. A firmware flasher and firmware is the first step. Connect to the board using the micro-USB that comes off the board while pressing the DFU button. This allows your computer to recognize it without firmware onboard and allows it to communicate with Beta flight. Beta flight is the flasher that I used for the board as it has a handy firmware flasher tab at the bottom and it makes it easy. Go online and get the correct firmware for the aircraft or vehicle that will use the flight controller. If the board is being used on a wing then get the wing firmware, if you were to try and use a plane firmware the ports on the board will be different and behave differently so again this step is very important. 

Mandatory Hardware Setup

After Beta flight does its thing launch mission planner and click the "connect button" up at the top. Now mission planner will be able to communicate with the board and you can begin the mandatory setup.

At this point, you should have bound your controller to your aircrafts RC controller and go to the tab Radio control calibration. Once it is bound run the setup and move all the sticks and the mode switch in channel 8 (mentioned further down). The program then learns the max throw of all the inputs and translates that to the motion of the bars. Here you should be able to see the data that your controller is sending to your aircraft and the inputs should change based on the stick movements.

After this, you may calibrate the accelerometer, this is a simple setup where you click start and have to position the wing according to the prompts. Here it is important to mention that it is important to use a long enough USB cord that won't cause you to rip the micro-USB port off the board when doing the accelerometer calibration. The micro-USB port is the only way to connect to the board and if broken off it will be very hard to connect and communicate with the board. 

Next, you should set up the modes on the aircraft. To do this first go to the mixer page on your controller and add a switch to channel 8. This switch itself isn't specific to a certain one and any of the Taranis switches can be used, just be sure that the switch works as this will be how you change modes and you won't want it accidentally bumped or shorting and have you change modes randomly. Modes can be set up based on personal preference. I set mine up to have the manual control mode on the front and back options of the switch with the flight controller on the middle option, this way if anything goes wrong during the mission I can flip the switch either way and take control with minimal thinking.

Finally, the ESC can be calibrated. This is a relatively simple process that you actually don't need the controller for. First position the aircraft so that nothing is touching the motor, as it can accidentally spool up this can keep you safe from physical harm and you only risk spooking yourself. Go to the Servo Output tab where you tell the board which input is what in the settings and find the throttle channel. There is a reverse box just off to the side of the bar, click the reverse button and the output should switch to the max. Next, plug the battery in and let the ESC beep, once the series of beeps stop click the reverse button a second time, this should bring the output to its minimum and the ESC will beep a series of beeps again. Once it's done the ESC should be calibrated, this can be tested by going to the flight plan tab and actions. Once in actions, connect a battery and click force arm, once again make sure the prop is not connected as you will be spooling the motor. Once its armed slowly increase throttle to see if the motor is spinning, if it is then the ESC is successfully calibrated. You should also be able to test the servos as well and see if they react correctly.

Parameters

Based on the position of the board and how it will be in your aircraft you might need to play with some parameters. There is an arrow on the board that states what it thinks is front, this can be rotated and changed by changing a drop-down in the parameters that will tell it that it is, rolled 90 degrees or yawed 180 or whatever positioning that it'll take to get the flight data tab to pitch and yaw according to the front.

Troubleshooting

In setting up my flight controller I learned a lot. For one an issue that you are having might be solved by simply coming back to it tomorrow, this happened about 3 times when I would get stuck and Mission Planner wasn't doing what I wanted it to do regardless of all the forms I could find online. I would come back the next day and the problem wouldn't exist. Next and another easy thing to screw up is the connections that are soldered/ connected to the board. As one wire might have been soldered to the wrong port and the board cannot communicate with the desired component properly. I mentioned this earlier but going online to some forms may also save you a lot of hair-pulling later and the forms can cover a lot more and be much more specific than one can be in a blog.

Conclusion 

In messing around with mission planner over this COVID break I have learned a lot about the software and some of the funny intricacies that the software has. I only wish that we covered more of this in class so that some of my hair might have survived my at home frustration.

Constructing a Defiant 42 Wing

Introduction

There is something attractive about a model aircraft. Whether it's a perfect scale model of a real aircraft or something a little more fun any model aircraft can be a rewarding process to build and fly. In choosing which wing to build some friends and I initially constructed Spec wings, which are part of a racing class of wings, and are a blast to fly, but the next build we wanted to go bigger. The Spec wing is about 30 inches and because we wanted bigger we stepped up to the 42" wing that is offered by Defiant. This wing is a sports cruiser with a large payload capacity and one hell of a presence when in the air.

Construction

Creating the Airframe

The instructions are simple enough and mainly require someone who is experienced to know all the steps required. This is why we did the Spec wings first in order to know the process of building these wings. The first step is to glue the airframe together, as the 42 comes in 3 pieces to minimize shipping cost. The 2 outer wing sections and the midsection are glued together using white gorilla glue as it expands and will provide a  secure bond between the sections of the wing. After that, the fiberglass spars are embedded into the foam to give the wing rigidity and protect the shape. The spars are also secured with white gorilla glue and any excess glue is sanded down to the shape of the wing. Figure 1 shows the spar placement according to the instructions.

The motor bay is the next step, a small area is cut into the rear of the wing for the motor mounts to slot into. In this case, we are using a larger prop than the airframe could fit, so a portion of the wing sides was cut so that the prop could fit.

Figure 1: Spar placement and motor mount location

Covering the Airframe

After sanding down the excess glue the airframe should feel pretty solid but it still isn't ready for electronics yet. The edges and some of the spars are covered in a clear reinforced tape that has a string fabric running through the tape to provide a very strong tape and help hold the airframe together. After this step, the airframe is sprayed with spray adhesive and covered in a regular clear tape. This process starts at the back of the wing and slowly layers the tape forward. This prevents air from catching the tape and causing it to peel off midflight. Figure 2 is of my wing after this step, it is important to minimize the wrinkles in the tape at this stage as they will only get larger as more tape layers are added. 

Figure 2: The wing covered with clear tape

Once the covering is done the elevons can also be covered in this same process, spray adhesive and then colored tape. As the elevons are already smooth balsa wood the clear tape isn't needed and they can be covered with the color tape that fits the design of the wing, this part can be seen in Figure 6 further down.

Connecting the components

The wing has a few electronics that go with it. A motor, 2 servos, an electronic speed controller (ESC), a video transmitter (VTX), a flight controller, GPS, and finally a camera for the nose. The Major part of this project is connecting almost everything to the flight controller. By following the wiring diagram found on Maytek's website everything can be connected correctly. Figure 3 is of the wiring diagram, Figure 4 is of the correct connection points for the servos for a flying wing set up and Figure 5 is of my little brother, who has a lot more soldering experience, working on the board and soldering the connections.

A side note and "pro-tip" here would be to avoid using the pin connectors for the board and solder the wires right into the holes on the board without pre-tinning the holes as this will make it hard to get the wire into the connection and ensure a good solder.

Figure 3: The Wiring Schematic 

Figure 4: The Servo connections for the Wing

Figure 5: Soldering the connections

Embedding

Once everything is wired accordingly the components can be embedded into the wing. The easiest way to do this is with a hot knife and melting the foam out so that the component can fit. After the components are situated their wires can be embedded. Sometimes this step can be done before or during the connecting phase to ensure that a component has wires that are long enough.

For the servos, it is important to not connect them in a straight line based on the airframe but actually perpendicular to the joint connecting the elevons to the airframe. This will provide minimal resistance to the moving servo and not risk breaking the control surface or servo in a crash as any force applied to an eleven will simply force the servo to move and not pry it out of its bay, risking other components or damage to the body. The final layout of the embedded components can be seen in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Everything Embedded 

Extra Components

After the wing is wired up and basically ready to fly. Lids for the forward battery bay and secondary electronics bay can be designed. As the electronics bay has a lot of electronics inside it is expected to get very hot, this can be fixed by adding ducts and vents to channel air down to the electronics and escape vents to allow the air to leave the bay and not rip off the lid. This is where 3D printing is key allowing one to print these components. In the case of my wing, I used NACA ducts that were made on CATIA for another class and escape vents that were designed by the creator of the wing. As was pointed out by a friend the NACA ducts on my wing are technically ram-air ducts but this was to minimize the extra cutting and air channeling that would have been needed for a true NACA duct.

Another part was also 3D printed and these were skids to protect the bottom. These were printed at a 20% hex infill without a top and bottom layer in order to expose the infill and allow flexing for landing. All these extra 3D printed parts were hot glued to the wing and are very secure. Finally, as I realized the NACA ducts will produce a lot of extra force onto the secondary bay lid and in order to keep it from flexing 2 extra rods were pushed through the lids corrugation to give it some true strength to resist bending and flexing. Figure 7 is of the ducts on the wing and Figure 8 is of the skids.

Figure 7: The vent system designed for the electronics bay

Figure 8: the skids

Finalizing

After all the components are connected final taping and stickers may be added to give some personality to your wing. I have used a theme on my spec wing that was all triangles and it came out looking amazing so I did a similar design on the 42.  After all the taping the vertical stabilizers are added on the end and it is completely done. 

Conclusion

In a situation faced as we are facing today being stuck inside can be really boring, so building a model aircraft, can really help with some of that extra time. In total my wing took me about 2 weeks of time to build and for many people that'll help with a lot of the boredom. Finally flying the wing is something that is endless fun and one can fly it hundreds of times before the airframe will get worn out. Figures 9 and 10 are of the top and bottom of the final wing design and it finished, I call it Big Red

Figure 9: Top

Figure 10: Bottom

Parts List:

Motor- RC Timer BC3536/6 1250KV

ESC- Strix Rocket 65 Amp

Prop- APC 8x6

Battery- 3300 mah 4s

Servos- Turnigy TGY-811

VTX- TBS Unify Pro 32

Antenna- True RC side Feed

Camera- Foxeer Falkor V2