1. 100 Years of Powered Flight : Macro to Micro – How Small? K Sudhakar Department of Aerospace Engineering Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai February 28, 2004

2. 100 Years of Powered Flight : Macro to Micro – How Small? Looking back – 100 Years? Why small aircraft? What has been achieved world-wide What have we achieved?

3. Looking back – 100 Years?

4. 1896 Lord Kelvin, “I do not have the smallest molecule of faith in aerial..” 1896 Wright Brothers start their research 1901 WW to OW: “Not within a thousand years would man fly!” Wind tunnel tests with ‘speed and accuracy’. The time later reduced to 50 years; But takes only 2 years. Orville & Wilbur Wright

5. 1903 Oct 7 : Langley’s two failures. Aerodrome Dec 8 : falls into the Potomac Dec 14 : Failure for Wright Brothers “.. need not disturb or hurry us in the least. Langley needs better scientific data than is contained in his published works to successfully build a man-carrying flying Machine” Orville & Wilbur Wright

6. December 17, 1903. Historic First Flight December 14, 2003. India Remembers.

7. Challenges Ahead?

8. How big can an aircraft get? Mini ( 15 cm to 200 cm) Micro (< 15 cm) How small can an aircraft get?

9. Why Small Aircraft? Surveillance Hazard mitigation Military applications

10. How to make quantum jumps? Year Product Improvement Technology-1 Technology-2

11. What are the issues? Effective size less by a factor of 10,000 All past experience and data not applicable All ‘good shapes’ evolved over the years of no use Aerodynamics

12. Everyone Loses Feel ‘Solar Powered’  -aircraft of IIT-Bombay Power required = 4 watts? Weight of 4 watt solar panel in the open market? in kgs! Total Weight of Aircraft 120 gm!! Solar panel weight Proposed : 45 gm Achieved : 57 gm

13. Videography Platform - IITB Challenge Posed (2002) Size not to exceed 60 cm Weight no to exceed 1 kg Time taken < 6 months Distance 600 m Height 300 m

14. Videography Platform Components Colour Video Camera Weight = 9.5 gm Video Transmitter Range = 1000 m Weight = 10 gm Size = 60 cm, Weight = 870 gm Analysis? Assessment? Toughest Challenge!

15. Comparison 24” 6” (1/4 th in size) But folds more complex

16. Some of the Investigations @IITB Propulsion unit 60% by weight Propeller efficiency 40% New propeller designs Measure upto 40 gms

17. Learning From Nature! Wing Span (m) Mass (kg) 0.01 0.10 1.010.0 0.1 1.0 10.0 + + ++ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + ++ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + ++ + ++ +++ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Flapping Wing Flight Birds

18. Early Attempts to Fly Leonardo da Vinci No success in imitating birds Lord Cayley shows the way Highly integrated solutions difficult! Decompose and conquer

19. Man Made Bird. 1992! Flapping Flight Efficiencies have been low!

20. Fixed, Flapping, Rotary Wing? Nature suggests flapping for small aerial vehicles Efficiency of flapping wing vehicles built by man not very high! Terrestrial Locomotion? Nature suggests bi-peds/quadru-peds Man made vehicles are wheeled Multi-pedes, bi-peds !?

21. Flapping Flight in India “To the sheer amazement of the audience, the model began beating its wings just like a bird and started flying!”, AVIA August 2003 on Mr K Nandakumar, Chennai Moble Benedict (IIT-B) Designs Flapping Wing Involved, Intense Analysis Skilled manufacturing Innovative Testing

22. Which Way! Training Genetic Modification MAV Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems Bio-mimetics Bio-Optics Optical Flow Multi-function parts Learning