Learning the Bramore PPX Aircraft

 Introduction

The Bramore PPX is an expensive Slovenian-designed aircraft that Purdue owns and is flown by seniors and graduate students within the program. It is launched via catapult and boasts a flight time of about 3 hours. The aircraft flys with its own mapping software that runs similarly to Measure ground control but also operates critical components of the flight like loiter or to deploy the parachute

Figure 1: The Aircraft and Catapult

Ground Station

The Ground station uses a Bluetooth transmitter box that acts as a bridge for the tablet and aircraft for communication. It wirelessly communicates between the devices allowing for edits to the mission in real-time. It also allows you to adjust the landing areas and home location. This aircraft only can communicate with the app and does not allow for manual control so it is critical that when using the aircraft that one ensures everything is charged and stays connected during the flight. If the link is lost the aircraft can loiter and/or return home and land. The C3P app also has the ability to predict where the aircraft will land based on wind direction and strength. This is critical because you don't want to have your expensive aircraft stuck in a tree on landing.

Figure 2: C3P software view w/ take-off, landing, and loiter points

Figure 3: Estimated landing location with 5m/s winds

Aircraft

The Aircraft is a sleek body wing with a large opening in the bottom to allow for sensors to the lookout. It also has a pito tube for accurate airspeed and PPX GPS allowing the user to forgo Ground Control Points (GCPs) as it is so accurate. The flight can last up to 3 hours in ideal conditions meaning that it can cover about an area of 30 km. The aircraft can house a variety of sensors from an RGB 42 MP camera to an Altium multispectral camera. The aircraft does require considerable downtime when swapping sensors and is considered a fragile platform which does cause problems with careless students, hence why it is reserved for upper-classmen.

Figure 4: Bramore aircraft

Parachute

The single most critical component for this aircraft is its parachute. Much like when one goes skydiving you must pack the chute for your flight and if it fails it's on you. There are specific steps that are required when packing the chute in order to ensure no tangles and twists that could cause the aircraft to plummet to the ground instead of land. This was the main portion of material that we covered when learned about the future flight possibilities for 409 (the next course). 

Conclusion

The Bramore is a very advanced aircraft that has a lot of bells and whistles going on. This aircraft is a critical step in learning complex aircraft that follow a checklist to ensure a safe flight. As long as all the steps and procedures are followed the aircraft shouldn't have any issues but miss one seemingly small thing and the whole flight may be put at risk.