UAVs

Carbon nanotube vehicle set to fly

An unmanned air vehicle made from a carbon nanotube (CNT) material called Buckypaper (BP) has been produced by Florida State University's (FSU) college of engineering.

The university plans to fly the 812mm (32in)-span vehicle, which is a modified commercial battery-powered UAV.

Buckypaper is produced by magnetically aligning carbon nanotubes suspended in a solution, then using an undisclosed process to produce a paper-like material. FSU claims BP is made entirely of CNTs, with no binder.

The commercial UAV's plastic fuselage was replaced by carbonfibre laminated with BP to enhance the structure's stiffness with no weight penalty. The two-layer BP composite skin was 15μ thick and had a mass of 0.18g/m² (0.07oz/ft²). Manual lay-up and vacuum bagging were used to make the composite laminate. A BP composite skin was also used to reinforce the foam wing structure and incorporate a BP composite antenna.

"The project started a year ago and the Phase 1 feasibility demonstration is complete," says FSU. "We plan to flight test this UAV." During research, two UAV models were fabricated into extra-lightweight, multifunctional structures.

FSU claims BP has other useful properties, including conductivity as good as copper and better than diamond for heat transfer, and that it can reduce electromagnetic interference.