International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056

Volume: 09 Issue: 07 | July 2022 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

Design, Fabrication and Aerodynamic Analysis of RC Powered Aircraft

Wing
Harish M1, Sankara Narayanan N2, Aswin Kumar G3, Subramani J4

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Aeronautical Engineering

2, 3, 4 UG Student, Department of Aeronautical Engineering

Hindusthan Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, India

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Abstract - A Radio-controlled (model) aircraft (often called real aircraft which flies and operates by the same principles
RC aircraft or RC plane) is controlled remotely by a hand-held as its full scale counterpart [3]. The only difference is size
transmitter and a receiver within the craft. Flying RC aircraft and weight. Models fly at anywhere between 20 and 150
as a hobby has been growing worldwide with more efficient MPH with the average trainer being between 40 and 60
motors (both electric and miniature internal combustion and MPH. These are not slow vehicles, nor can they be flown in a
jet engines) lighter and more powerful batteries and less normal backyard. And just like their bigger brothers, they
expensive radio systems. After designing the aircraft wing, required a learned skill to be controlled properly. It is not
fabrication is one of the important factors to be considered. simply a matter of pushing a button to take off, another to
Fabrication mainly depends on the type of material employed land, etc.
in manufacturing the aircraft by considering the availability,
cost, durability, strength and how easily it can be made into 2. ELECTRICAL POWERED RC AIRCRAFT
required shape. This paper is based on designing a light
weight, electronically controlled glider with operating 2.1 Wing Selection
frequency of 2.4 GHz. This paper did not concentrated on
electronic components as the components used are readily There were 3 choices for the types of wing we could use,
available in markets and need not be programmed by the Rectangular, Elliptical and Tapered. The most commonly used
users. The aircraft wing considered in this paper was designed wing for RC planes are Rectangular [3].
to have optimum lift and drag characteristics. The
aerodynamic characteristics over the wing had been validated
with the experimental data using low subsonic wind tunnel.

Key Words: RC Aircraft, Wingspan, Lift, Angle of attack,

Drag, Batteries
Figure 1: Rectangular Wing
1. INTRODUCTION The rectangular wing is the best wing for usage from a
manufacturability point of view. The rectangular wing has a
RC plane represents Radio Control Aircraft or Airplane is a tendency to stall rest at the wing root and provides adequate
small flying machine that is controlled remotely by an stall warning, adequate aileron effectiveness, and is usually
operator on the ground using a hand-held transmitter. The quite stable. It is also often favored for the design of low cost,
transmitter communicates with a receiver within the crafts low speed R/C planes.
that sends signals to Servomechanisms (servos) which move
the control surfaces based on the position of joysticks on the 2.2 Airfoil selection
transmitter. The control surfaces, in turn, affect the
orientation of the plane [1]. Flying RC aircraft as a hobby An airfoil is a shape of the wing, an airfoil-shaped body
grew substantially with improvements in the cost, weight, moved through a fluid produces aerodynamic force. The
performance and capabilities of motors, batteries and component of this force perpendicular to the direction of the
electronics. A wide variety of models and styles is available motion is called lift. The lift of the airfoil is primarily the
[2]. The earliest examples of electronically guided model result of its angle of attack and shape [5]. The below figure
aircraft were hydrogen-filled model airships of the late 19th represents the airfoil terminology and by altering each of the
century. They were flown as a music hall act around theatre above features of an airfoil, the designer is able to adjust the
auditoriums using a basic form of spark emitted radio signal. performance of the wing so that it is suitable for its
During World war II, the U.S Army and Navy used radio particular task. For example, a crop duster may have a thick,
controlled planes called Radio planes as artillery target high camber wing that produces a large amount of lift at low
drones [4]. The first thing one must realize about a radio speed. Alternatively, a jet would have a thin wing with
controlled model aircraft is that it is not a toy. The model is a minimal camber to allow it to cruise at high speeds.

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2.5 Control Surfaces

Ailerons:

These are the control surfaces situated at the trailing

edge of the wing to give it the roll motion. Ailerons move in
opposite direction to each other that is they have differential
action.

Rudder:

It is a control surface unites with vertical stabilizer to

Figure 2: Airfoil terminology
control the yaw motion of the aircraft.
2.3 Fuselage Selection Elevator:
Fuselage design focused on three different models, namely
Conventional Monoplane, Bi-Plane and N-Plane. While lifting It is a control surface unites with horizontal
the fuselage, one could potentially reduce wing loading, stabilizer to control the pitching motion of the aircraft.
which was the potential problem of executing a low-weight
construction along with the excessive airfoil thickness to 3. DETAIL OF DESIGN
accommodate a variety of potential loads. Thus a
conventional design was found to be often favored within the 3.1 Important terms
model building community due to ease of construction.
Therefore in this paper the Conventional type fuselage was The basic parameters to be considered are wing span, chord
used. length, Plan form area, Tip chord, root chord, aerodynamic
2.4 Tail Design or Empennage Design centre etc.

The empennage also known as the tail or tail assembly, of 1. Chord length (c):
most aircraft gives stability to the aircraft, in a similar way to
the feathers on an arrow. Most aircraft feature empennage Chord refers to the imaginary straight line joining the
incorporating vertical and horizontal stabilizing surfaces leading and the trailing edges of an airfoil. The chord length
which stabilize the flight dynamics of pitch and yaw, as well is the distance between the trailing edge and the point on the
as housing control surfaces. In spite of effective control leading edge where the chord intersects the leading edge.
surfaces, many early aircraft that lacked stabilizing The designed Chord length (c) for the wing is 11 cm.
empennage were virtually not flyable. Today, only a few
(often relatively unstable) heavier than air aircraft are able to 2. Wing span (b):
fly without empennage.
It is the maximum extent across the wing of an aircraft or of
There are 3 different tail designs namely Conventional, V- a bird or other flying animal measuring from tip to tip. The
Tail and H-Tail. While the H-Tail increases effectiveness of designed Wing span (b) of the wing is 55 cm.
the horizontal control surfaces through the winglets, it also
adds increased weight to the design since we require a 3. Aspect ratio (AR):
number of vertical surfaces with their control servos, which
may not be considerable. While the V-Tail provided a The aspect ratio of the wing is the ratio of its span to its
number of benefits, the team felt that we could get the same mean chord. It is equal to the square of the wing span
performance characteristics from a simpler design given the divided by the wing area. Thus, a large narrow wing has a
speed we were traveling at. Additionally, no weight was high aspect ratio, where as a short, wide wing has a low
expected to be saved by using a more complicated tail aspect ratio.
design.
Aspect Ratio (AR) = b/c
The Conventional design is well known for its low risk and
ease of control and manufacturability. A conventional design Where,
is also widely used because it is the most efficient tail design b – Wing span
for the speed R/C planes are expected to fly it. And so the c – Chord length
Conventional design is good for low speed RC planes.
AR = 55/11

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The designed aspect ratio of the wing is 5 because our = (11-11) +11/4 =2.75 cm
aircraft is homebuilt so according to the given we have
chosen it to be in the correct range. 3.2 Wings

4. Planform Area (Swing): Wing is the most important part of the plane which provides
lift, which causes the plane to fly. The type of wing we have
It is the area of the wing as viewed from above the wing, selected is monoplane, which is most popularly used over
looking along the lift direction. multi plane configuration because the adjacently placed
Swing = b^2/AR cm^2 = 3025/5 wings generate more drag and reduce efficiency.

5. Wing Loading: The position of the wing on the fuselage is High wing which
is attached to the higher position of the fuselage, it gives
An aircraft with a low wing loading has a larger wing area stable flight, and it is not aerobatic.
relative to its mass, as compared to an aircraft with a high
wing loading. The faster an aircraft flies, the more lift can be 3.3 Airfoil
produced by each unit of wing area, so a smaller wing can
carry the same mass in level flight. We have chosen Asymmetrical airfoil, because the
asymmetrical airfoil has a higher coefficient of lift than the
Wing loading = body mass/Swing gm/cm^2 symmetrical airfoil. On asymmetrical airfoils, the top edge is
shaped differently than the bottom edge, which changes the
= 191/605 gm/cm^2 way air flows over it. This causes the air to move faster,
which creates more lift. The asymmetrical aerofoil we have
= 0.3157 gm/cm^2 used is GOTTINGEN 526.
Wing loading must not exceed 0.6 – 1.3 gm/cm^2, so it is in
the correct range.

6. Taper Ratio (TR):

Taper ratio is defined as the wing span divided by the

average chord. Ratio of the chord at the tip to the chord at Figure 3: Gottingen 526 Airfoil
the root angle between the line of 25% chord points and the
longitudinal axis. 3.4 Lift and Drag coefficient
7. Root Chord (CROOT): The lift coefficient (CL) is a dimensionless coefficient that
relates the lift generated by a lifting body to the fluid density
We call the chord length near the fuselage is root chord. around the body, the fluid velocity an associated reference
area. A lifting body is a foil or a complete foil-bearing body
CROOT = 2* Swing/b*(1+TR) such as a fixed-wing aircraft. The plot of lift coefficient
versus Angle of attack over Gottingen 526 Airfoil is shown in
= 2* 605/55*(1+1) figure below.
= 1210/110

= 11 cm

It is a Rectangular Straight wing so CTIP is also same.

8. Aerodynamic Centre (x):

The aerodynamic centre is the point at which the pitching

moment coefficient for the aerofoil does not vary with lift
coefficient (angle of attack), so this choice makes analysis
simpler.
Figure 4: CL vs AOA
X = (CROOT – C) + C / 4

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From above figure, the maximum value of lift coefficient from bubble columns to oil platforms, from blood flow to
equal to 1.94 is observed at an angle of attack of 24 degree. semiconductor manufacturing. In this paper, Ansys-Fluent
has been used to analyze the lift and drag coefficients for the
In fluid dynamics, the drag coefficient (CD) is a aircraft wing. The Input conditions used for the CFD analysis
dimensionless quantity that is used to quantify the drag or are given below.
resistance of an object in a fluid environment, such as air or
water. The plot of drag coefficient versus Angle of attack Model : Viscous-Spalart-Allmaras (1 eqn)
over Gottingen 526 Airfoil is shown in figure below. Material : Fluid
Density : Ideal Gas
Viscosity : Sutherland
Operating condition : 0 pa (Operating pressure)
Boundary conditions : Walls and Pressure far field
Mach number : 0.05
U-velocity : 0.912545
V-Velocity : 0.406736
Temperature : 300 K

Contour Plots:

Pressure can be used to calculate forces such as lift, drag or

torque on objects integrating the pressure over the surface
Figure 5: CD vs AOA
of the object.
4. COMPUTATIONAL ANALYSIS

Generating mesh is neither easy nor fun. But mesh

generation is where you have the most direct influence on
how fast, how converged and how accurate your CFD
solutions is. Because of that you need a mesher that is
flexible and reliable and so the Gridgen tool is used. The
details of the mesh generated over the wing are given in
figure below.

Type of Grid : Multi block structured grid

Total Number of grid : 14340 Figure 7: Pressure contour over wing
Cell type : Quadrilateral element
Number of Element : 13924 The above figure shows the pressure distribution over the
Number of blocks : 3 blocks wing at 24˚ Angle of attack. The pressure at the bottom of the
Boundary conditions : Wall and Pressure far field airfoil is higher than the upper airfoil.

A method of measuring stream discharge in which point

velocity measurements are translated into average cross
sectional flow velocities by contouring the point velocities.

Figure 6: Mesh generated over wing

ANSYS-FLUENT contains the broad physical modeling

capabilities needed to model flow, heat transfer, turbulence
and reactions for industrial applications ranging from
airflow over an aircraft wing to combustion in a furnace, Figure 8: Mach contour over wing

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The above figure shows the contours of Mach number over α= 3 degree (wing)
the wing. The Mach contour plot reveals high velocity at the αt = 2 degree (Tail)
upper surface and low velocity at the bottom surface of the
wing.

5. TAIL CONSTRUCTION

The type of tail section used in this paper is conventional tail.

This configuration includes one horizontal tail (two left and
right section); located on the tail of the fuselage and one
vertical tail (one section) located on top of the tail of
fuselage. Both vertical and horizontal tails are located and
mounted to the tail of fuselage.
Figure 9: Horizontal Stabilizer
5.1 Horizontal Stabilizer
5.2 Vertical Stabilizer
The design of horizontal stabilizer had been made by
The design of vertical stabilizer had been made by
calculating the following parameters.
calculating the following parameters
5.1.1 Stabilizer tail area (st)
5.1.1 Chord tip
Stabilizer area should be around 14 to 15 percentage of Chord Tip (C tip) = 1 * D
the wing area.
Where,
Wing Area = 605 cm^2 D = Fuselage Height (6.2 cm)
15% of wing area = 0.15 * 605 Tail Area (St) = 90.75 cm^2
Ctip = 6.2 cm
5.1.2 Tail span (bt)
5.1.2 Root chord
Tail span (bt) = (ARt * St) ^ 1/2 Where,
Root Chord (C root) = 2 *D Croot = 12.4 cm
ARt = Aspect Ratio of Tail should be less than Wing = 4. Span = 2*D Span = 12.4 cm
Tail Span (bt) = 19.05 cm

5.1.3 Tapper ratio (TRt)

Tapper ratio of the tail = 0.66 (assumed)

5.1.4 Tail root chord (Croo t)

Tail root chord = 2* St/ (bt (1+TRt)) = 2* 90.75 /

(19.05(1+0.66)
Figure 10: Vertical Stabilizer
= 181.5/31.54
6. ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS
Tail Root Chord (Croot t) = 5.75 cm
The electrical components used for fabricating the RC
5.1.5 Tail tip chord powered aircraft are listed below,

Tip Chord (Ctip) = (TRt * Croot) Brushless Motor : 1600 kv

Servo (4 Nos) : 180 degree
= (0.66 * 5.75) ESC : Electronic Speed Control
= 3.75 cm LIPO Battery : 11.1 V
Fly Sky Transmitter : 2.4 GHZ
Tail angle should be 1 to 1.5 degrees less than α. Fly Sky Receiver : 2.4 GHZ

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These components are readily available in markets and need

not to be programmed by the user.

7. FUSELAGE CONSTRUCTION

The fuselage construction consists of Front section, Mid-

section and Aft section.

Front Section:
From the basic configuration of RC Plane, the front section
should be 1.3 of chord length and so the front section length
will be 14.3 cm.

Mid-Section:
This section is for placing the wing that is 11 cm chord
length.

Aft Section: Figure 12: RC Aircraft model

This section should be 2.4 of chord length, i.e. is 26.4 cm.
10. CONCLUSION
8. LANDING GEAR
From the above methodology and concepts the RC powered
Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft, may be Aircraft wing had been designed and tested both
used for either landing or take off. It absorbs the landing experimentally and computationally. The results of both
shocks, dampen the vibration etc. The type of Landing gear tests were compared. And also the wing is placed in the
used in this paper is Tail Dragger which is fabricated using working model and was successfully flown. The applications
aluminum sheet. of RC Plane were studied.

9. FABRICATION REFERENCES
Based upon the above calculations, wing section, fuselage [1] Krishnan R, Narayanan Chavan, Sandeep Nayak, Shryas
section, tail section was fabricated using foam material as S Hedge, “A Systematic Approach for Designing,
sown in figure below. Analysing and Building a Model RC Plane,” December
2014
[2] Mahesh Pula, Omkar Bhosle, Rohit Varpe, “Radio
Controlled Airplane,” Febraury 2015

[3] Nguyen Minh Triet, Nguyen Ngoc Vipt, Pham Manh

Thang, “Aerodynamic Analysis of Aircraft Wing,” January
2015

[4] 4. Pradyumna SV, Prateek R, Raju BS, “Design and

Fabrication and Analysis of a High winger Conventional
Tail Radio Controlled Airplane,” July 2015

[5] 5. Rochen Krishna TS, Shankar goud Nyamannavar,

Sharath Rao, Shrey Krishnamoorthy, Suraj Jeyashankar,
“CFD Analysis of an Aircraft Wing,” September 2014

Figure 11: Wing construction

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