Design study to simulate the development of a commercial freight transportation system

摘要

The Notre Dame Aerospace Engineering senior class was divided into six design teams. A request for proposals (RFP) asking for the design of a remotely piloted vehicle (RPV) was given to the class, and each design team was responsible for designing, developing, producing, and presenting an RPV concept. The RFP called for the design of commercial freight transport RPV. The RFP provided a description of a fictitious world called 'Aeroworld'. Aeroworld's characteristics were scaled to provide the same types of challenges for RPV design that the real world market provides for the design of commercial aircraft. Fuel efficiency, range and payload capabilities, production and maintenance costs, and profitability are a few of the challenges that were addressed in this course. Each design team completed their project over the course of a semester by designing and flight testing a prototype, freight-carrying remotely piloted vehicle.