Date of Award

Spring 2025

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2025

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Mohammad Ayoubi

Abstract

Common vertical take-off vehicles, such as helicopters, have been useful for transportation, rescue, and fire-fighting applications. However, these vehicles contribute significantly to CO2 emissions and are extremely loud. Electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles ( e VTOLs) have been proposed as an alternative vehicle which can perform the same functions, without the costs associated with a helicopter. In this paper, we develop a conceptual design for an eVTOL which satisfies the requirements of the annual Vertical Flight Society's Design-Vertical-Build-Fly Competition. We focus our conceptual design on three subsystems: Propulsion, Airfoils, and Controls. These subsystem designs are verified using Finite Element Analysis techniques, as well as Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations. Additionally, a preliminary control simulation using MATLAB /Simulink TM has been developed using these design choices. The next steps of the project will include detailed design of the tail, designing the payload dropping mechanism, and further developing the controls program. Long-term work includes manufacturing and testing of the aircraft in order to meet the competition deadline of April 1, 2025.

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