LAVEP

Lightweight Advanced VTOL EDF Project

Bringing the Concept to Fruition

Continuing where Kestrel left off, the Lightweight Advanced VTOL EDF Project (LAVEP) scaled up the design optimized each component and subsystem for efficiency.

Increasing Roll Control Authority

A CFD study showed that drag did not increase and lift was not affected by moving the front nacelles to under-wing mounts, further from the center of the roll axis.

The modified Kestrel CFD model with underwing nacelles and an early LAVEP model

Bigger Plane, Even Bigger Power

1x 105mm and 2x 90mm electric ducted fans produce over 20kg of thrust. Powered by a 12 cell (50V) 10,000 mAh lithium polymer battery through 200A speed controllers with custom aluminum heatsinks.

Manufacturing

3D Printed Airframe

LW-PLA-HT filament was used for the airframe. Printed with varying infill values depending on part geometry and strength requirements.

Resin was used for the gear train components which needed to be very accurate and rigid.

Carbon Fiber Nacelle Brackets

3mm carbon fiber plate was cut using my desktop CNC router and used for the nacelle brackets.

To reduce weight, slots were cut in the front nacelle brackets and were filled with light weight plastic.

The rear speed controller is at the greatest risk of overheating. A temperature telemetry probe was added in between the heatsink fins as well as direct telemetry from the ESC to monitor temperature changes during flight.

Thermal management was given great consideration during the design and testing. Each ESC is exposed to free stream air in forward flight for maximum heat dissipation.

Electronics

An Arduino based Teensy 4.0 microcontroller runs a modified version of the dRehmFlight flight control system which takes inputs from the Spektrum receiver and the IMU to determine how to drive the 7 servos and 3 speed controllers.