Research
The objective of the CU-24 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Team is to design, fabricate, and test a UAV capable of 24+ hours of endurance with an onboard computer system capable of communicating flight data and surveillance images to a ground station. The CU-24 UAV project stresses design flexibility and resourcefulness. These goals are embodied in both its mechanical and electronics design.
The airframe itself will be a highly efficient composite construction flight vehicle able to push the current performance limits on mid-scale, prop-powered autonomous aircraft. The wing, engine, and fuselage will be modular and interchangeable, allowing different combinations for different types of missions (loitering, cruising, speed, heavy lifting, altitude, etc.).
Our current configuration will be aimed towards maximizing flight time with a 12-ft wingspan, large fuel load, and minimal engine. We estimate flight time to be over 24 hours. Our payload will be a high resolution camera able to pan, tilt, and zoom. It will provide real-time images as well as 7-megapixel still shots. The aircraft will communicate with the ground using cellular wireless internet. We believe this to be the first aircraft, if not the first vehicle, to ever use this means of communication for primary control and data transmission.
With the newly designed airframe and communications hardware, the aircraft should be capable of a North Atlantic crossing or a Boston to Key West marathon. Both are possible goals for the year to come.
Our hope is that this research proves the viability of low-cost, modular design in a commercially practical flight vehicle. While the airframe is custom-fabricated from high performance composite materials, the modular design allows a much greater return on investment and would lower costs in a production scenario. Through the creative use of existing technologies, research, development, production and replacement costs are drastically cut. Nearly all of the electronics and software components are readily available off the shelf, and only a handful are purpose-built.
The target flight date has not been set, but will likely be in early May 2007.