Year: 2022

The team conducted its second test flight for the semester on 4/29. The focus for this flight was gathering pressure data using the pitot tube installed on the AL37 aircraft. The results were that the aircraft's airspeed averaged 59 mph, hitting a maximum of 70 mph mid-flight. This flight was conducted at roughly 50% throttle. [caption id="attachment_656" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Figure 1: AL37 aircraft on the runway, with pitot tube and Pixhawk installed[/caption] [caption id="attachment_657" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Figure 2: AL37 mid-flight during flight test 2[/caption] The team was unable to receive GPS data due to an outage at the time of the flight. As a result, any altitude data is unusable. The aircraft otherwise saw no issues during the flight.

The team conducted the first test flight of the semester on Saturday, April 9th, utilizing the AL37 aircraft. The goal was to conduct a test flight with the new Pixhawk implementation and utilize the QGroundControl software to gather energy consumption data, with the aircraft at steady-level flight. The electronics system performed as expected and the team saw no disconnection issues between the ground computer and the Pixhawk in the air. The flight lasted for roughly 4 minutes 30 seconds before the battery was reported going low and the aircraft was brought in for a landing. [video width="1920" height="1080" mp4="https://m2i.aere.iastate.edu/boeingelectric/files/2022/04/20220409_121606.mp4"][/video]   The flight revealed some issues that we can improve on with the AL37. These issues include making some adjustments to the wings, fixing some issues with the flaps, and putting…