Hello everyone,

The plane design is on schedule and will be completed within the next week. By the end of this week, The avionics team will have selected our motor, various sensors and servos that will accompany our plane. Our plane will be roughly 7.5 pounds and have a wingspan of approximately 6 feet. From this, we know that our plane will require a brush-less outrunner electric RC motor that can produce approximately 50-80 lbs/watt. An outrunner is more beneficiary than an inrunner motor because the outrunner can achieve the same benefits as an inrunner but the inrunner would require a gearbox and more complications. So far we have a few options on motors including the RimFire .46 as shown above and the RimFire .55. More research will be conducted this week to figure out the most efficient motor that will also go along with a proper propeller. We will not require a higher RPM and more powerful motor because our plane will only be performing simple flight patterns and extended glide time. Thus, there is no need for a sport like motor.

We have also spent the last week working on our UROP proposal that will be submitted this evening, The Green Inititve Fund (TGIF) and contacting different solar companies for funding and research opportunities. We were unfortunately denied by TGIF so our focus has been on completing a well put together UROP proposal and setting up communication with various solar companies about possible help. We hope that these companies will help provide decent price quotes as well as samples for our power systems team to start working with.

Thank you for reading!
Blake Theilacker
btheilac@uci.edu