Engineering Projects/FanWing/Howard Community College/Fall2011/550 MWE

Electronic Sections Expected

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Going to Do

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Construct a workable Fanwing.

Team Members

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Summary

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Constructed:

  • 3D Blueprint of Body
  • 3D Blueprint of Squirrel Cage
  • Sides of the Fanwing body (Styrofoam)

Most time consuming part was the sketching it online. The learning curve was great and cost the group a great deal of time. The fanwing sketch include the body and the squirrel cage. \

The construction led up to the attachments of the body to the squirrel cage. The balsa wood was a tough challenge because off its lightness and using a powerful tool would cause the wood to splinter.

Poster

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The gap within the squirrel cage will contain a Rotating Fan that propels the air down the top of the wing to assist in lift.

 
Rotating Mechanism for Squirrel Cage
 
Fanwing body

Story

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Chose to work on the Fanwing, started the project with just the squirrel cage and no other information or resources to use at that moment. Originally we decided that we would try dividing up responsibilities for the project, and that changed once we realized before building we would need a blueprint. After Learning 123D, we mapped out a couple blueprints of different portion of the plane, and we have cut the side of the plane out of Styrofoam, which is a good material to use due to its lightweight composition and great surface for catching air.

Decision List

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Decided to use Styrofoam and balsa wood as main materials to build the Fanwing, they are lightweight and Ideal for a lightweight small plane like ours with a small engine. Decided to use existing squirrel cage made from balsa wood and building around it. Used steering mechanism from old plane project and implemented it into our own.

Material List

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  • Motors (Possibly from remote control cars, or dollar store toys.)
  • Engineering Notebook
  • Balsa Wood
  • Styrofoam
  • Hot glue gun

Software List

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  • Google sketchup
  • 123D beta

Time

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40 hours of work-time, class time inclusive.

Tutorials

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123D:

  • When using 123D and attempting to re-create the Squirrel Cage right click,Draw, Form Edit, Edit Edge. From there proceed to edit the desired edge.