Aurora X1 Airplane

George H. Perkins

This is a live update of the design phase of my experimental aircraft “Aurora X1”. I will post design updates, simulation testing, technical specifications, and tons of photos. Stay up to date!

Purpose

UPDATED: April 28th 2020

I started designing the Aurora in 17 and believe it or not, it hasn’t changed all that much. I currently own a Corben Baby Ace single seater airplane that at best cruises at a whopping 95mph, which is fun but lacks the capability of carrying a passenger and traveling across the country efficiently. Where the Ace loses, Aurora excels and its the Ace that powers the design.

Target specs for Aurora are light weight (+- 1550lbs), fast (+- 175mph), efficient (+- 7gph) with range of (+- 700nm), seats (two), and has a useful load of (+- 500lbs)

Design

UPDATED: April 28th 2020

You can see the design has come along way since 2017…

AURORA is intended to be 100% carbon fiber, but i have not yet decided how i am going to go about laying it up. The ideal situation is the use of giant molds, but that can get pretty costly pretty quick for a project this size. Another option I’m considering is a rib / stringer inner skeleton that i can mold around. Here is what that would look like.

Have any ideas on how i can layup carbon fiber on a project this size? Please email me @ georgehperkins1@gmail.com

Ass you can see, after CFD i changed the tail section. There was no need, but as i mentioned I’m going for the most efficient airframe I can get. The change in the tail increased gross lift of the fuselage and streamlined airflow over the tail reducing overall stall speed.

Aurora X1 has a unique forward wing sweep that is purpose built. The idea behind the forward sweep was simple, create a uniformed center of lift. This reduces the spread in performance while carrying a passenger as appose to flying solo. In laments terms, I want to reduce w&b affect on flying characteristics.

Additionally, the horizontal stabilizer has been swept backwards. This is to compensate for the upgraded Rotax 912 power plant. At speed, i want to reduce vibrations where i can.

May 2nd 2020

Working on the engine mount and cowling. I have decided to upgrade the engine and will need to redesign the cowling. In process currently.

Analysis

UPDATED: April 29th 2020

Phase one: General Analysis

A couple of weeks ago, I posted some prelim design for my experimental aircraft AURORA X1 and some fellow members were worried about my vertical stabs performance in the event of a spin. The argument was that the horizontal stab would disrupt airflow over the vertical in the event of a spin. Well after a week of analysis, here are my results. The following simulation was run through 500 iterations. Specifications of sim are as follows. -38.4degrees downward AOA. I got the degree AOA by the anticipated mass distribution and relative density of the aircraft. This also gave me anticipated spin fulcrum point. This simulation has the aircraft spinning around the Y axis on its fulcrum point. Turbulence was added to the model as “k-epsilon with a Turb/Lam ratio of: 100. As you can see, there is some disruption, but constant airflow over the vertical stabilizer. Control will be feasible in the event of a common spin for this aircraft.

As you can see, the separation at 200mph as expected is little to none.

Phase two: Crunching the numbers

Major Changes

UPDATED: May 5th 2020

Above you may notice the first iteration of design changes after phase one review.

1. The engine cowling was redesigned shorter, more aerodynamic, and changed the cool air intake making them larger and moving their location to be above the engine cylinder. The cowling change was a result of an updated engine. Yes. I have decided to go with the ROTAX 915.
2. The fuselage has been shortened by approx. 8 inches. I increased the dorsal length on the vertical stabilizer. The shortening of the fuselage was to compensate for the center of gravity changes with the updated engine and shortening of the cowling. The increased dorsal length was primarily to increase yaw control in the event of a spin.
3. The prop has been changed to a shorter three blade fixed pitch prop to increase speed and efficiency.

Specifications

UPDATED: April 28th 2020

Software I use

UPDATED: April 28th 2020

Rhino 3D — Advanced surface design, shaping, forming

Solidworks — Mechanical component design, CFD,

Fusion 360 — Dynamic shape optimization of components (primarily used for weight saving changes)

Open VSP — Airfoil Base design (later changes after CFD)

Key shot — Rendering, Animation, Material composition studies.

Tips & Business

If you are interested in building this aircraft form my plans please email me at georgehperkins1@gmail.com

Have questions comments and concerns? Text me 7574047512