HS-Drone Glider PROJECT

Several types of materials can be used to make the HS-Drone glider.  Supplies needed to make the glider include:
  • A good tape such as duct tape or painter’s tape.
  • A box cutter, heavy duty scissors, or similar cutting means.
  • A straight edge to assist with cutting straight lines.
  • A weight container (e.g., a baggie) and a weight to fill the container such as sand, dirt, or BB pellets.
 A light-weight sheet stock is also needed.  Examples include:  a) cardboard, b) corrugated plastic, and c) 3D-printed wings/surfaces. 
 
Fabrication instructions are as follows:
  1. 3D print or cut the front delta wing and trailing Towed Platform; both are flat sheets.  As base case dimensions, the delta wing is an isosceles triangle with base (trailing edge) of 12 inches and height of 4 inches. The towed platform is 8 inches wide and 15 inches long.
  2. Tape the Towed Platform to the trailing edge of the delta wing where the lead edge of the Towed Platform is about the same width as the trailing edge of the delta wing.  The most effective taping will allow the Towed Platform to freely pivot about 15 degrees up or down from the plane of the delta wing.
  3. Add a weight of about 60 grams (i.e., one sixth of a cup of sand) to the to the delta wing.  This can be done by placing the sand in a baggie, taping the baggie into a cylinder of about 1 inch in diameter, and taping that baggie from nose to the center of the base of the delta wing.
 
Testing:
Hand launch the glider in a manner similar to throwing a paper airplane.  A successful flight is one where the nose stays forward for the duration of the flight.  It is undesirable for the nose to flip or dive to the point where it is no longer in front of the rest of the aircraft; this is serious pitch instability.  If the nose eventually dives but stays in front of the rest of the aircraft, that is simply a result of slower speed where weight greatly exceeds lift with rapid loss of altitude.  If the glider rolls, including to and through belly-up flight, that is an example of roll instability. 
 
THE GLIDER CHALLENGE:
Make designs that can travel farther.  Add features that reduce and eventually prevent the glider from rolling. 
 
EXAMPLE 1 & OBSERVATIONS AND LEARNING: 
  1. Take the baggie containing 60 grams of sand and throw it.  In general, it can be thrown farther than the glider flies.  However, the glider is only the starting point, and that glider will eventually out-perform the simple tossing of the baggie.
  2. Tape the baggie on just the front delta wing (no towed platform), and toss it.  That delta wing will tumble with nothing resembling a glider flight.  That weighted delta wing has pitch, yaw, and roll instability. 
  3. Tape a couple paper towels to the back of the weighted delta wing.  Tape a corner (or corners) of the paper towel to the middle of the trailing edge of the delta wing.  Fasten the paper towels (or cloth) to the delta wing like a tail on a kite.  This towel/cloth/tail will be referred to as a banner.  Now launch that delta wing (nose forward, weight on underside) like a paper airplane.  Note that the banner creates pitch and yaw stability, and the delta wing flies more like a glider.  However, that banner only adds drag and weight; what is wanted is more aerodynamic lift and a flat surface to reduce drag.
  4. Cut the shape of the delta wing in front of the towed platform as a single sheet of cardboard or corrugated plastic.  Add the weight at a similar position as with the delta wing.  Launch in a similar manner as with the delta wing with a banner.  Typically, this design will flip and dive to the extent that the nose will at times be behind the rest of the aircraft.  This is pitch instability. 
A typical conclusion from this series of experiments is that a hinge joint between a front delta wing and trailing Towed Platform creates pitch stability where the absence of the hinge joint is an airframe that has pitch instability.
​EXAMPLE 2 & 3D PRINTING ENHANCEMENT
The images (to right) illustrate a CAD image, 3D print, cut corrugated plastic towed platform, and assembled glider.  The features of this glider include:  a) a cylinder container to be loaded with sand/pellets and taped shut and b) a trailing-end extension of the delta wing to both i) create increase control of the resistance to angle movement of the Towed Platform and ii) two brackets into which a nut and bolt may be inserted to adjust the limits of hinge joint angle movement. 
 
CHALLENGE:
  1. Add features to reduce roll, preferably simple features with minimal increase in drag, decrease in lift, or addition of weight.  Fences are a good option since they can increase lift to compensate for their added weight.
  2. Identify optimal shapes (keeping the sum total of surface area the same) for the tiltwing and Towed Platform to increase gliding distance.
  3. Identify how the stiffness of the hinge joint and limits of hinge joint angle movement impact performance.
  4. Experiment with larger and smaller HS-Drone gliders to understand how performance scales with size.
delta_glider.stl
File Size: 297 kb
File Type: stl
Download File