Introduction

The Department of Defense, and the Air Force in particular, are very interested in the development of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs).  These small, unmanned aircraft are primarily to be used for exploratory purposes and damage assessment on the battlefield.  Specifically, the viability of a collapsing wing MAV design is to be investigated.  Therefore, the objectives for this project entailed designing a wing configuration as well as a mechanism that will deploy and stow the wings.  An independent modular system for deploying the wings was designed so that it may be integrated into an existing or future fuselage design.  The primary design considerations for the project were the complexity, weight, and size factors.  The final design consists of two separate wings that are to be stowed along the top of the MAV fuselage.  These wings are deployed by means of a gear system driven by a servo in which two central, large gears rotate two smaller output gears that rotate on shafts connected to the wings.  The final prototype was constructed and subsequently tested to determine if the design specifications were met.  The wings were able to deploy in less than one second while the final weight of the prototype at 28 grams was well under the maximum allowable weight of 100 g.  It successfully stowed and deployed under the given space constraints and demonstrated that the collapsible wing design is certainly feasible.

For more information refer to Important Documents.