The Design Of The Das D-9 Hawk Moth
This is a condensed version of the winning submission to the Royal Aeronautical Society Light Aircraft Design Contest 2023 - The Das D-9 Hawkmoth by Prasenjit and Prodyut Das Introduction It is almost an axiom that to follow the specifications exactly is a recipe for getting into trouble and it is better to work out a common-sense interpretation of what is meant rather than what is written down. The competition rules calls for an aircraft capable of flying the given pattern and there is an implied anxiety that somehow the aircraft would “run out” of battery power before it could complete the pattern. This had us worried when we found after the rough first designs that the aircraft could fly the pattern with energy enough to spare and we then reassured ourselves that it was more an explanation of the way the marks would be allotted in case power running out happened. The +6g/-3g stress limits of the design reassured us that we were not expected to design an unlimited class of aerobat