The Penguin Mars Glider is a scale prototype of a theoretical design for a Mars Glider. This was developed in MAE 155B Aerospace Senior Design. The goal was to design a glider that could fly on Mars and then use a scale prototype to test it on Earth.

The fuselage is 3D Printed on Devin's Prusa i3 MK3S with MatterHackers NylonX filament, a composite Nylon filament with carbon-fiber filaments infused in the plastic. Devin was the main designer and manufacturer of the fuselage.

The wings are made of multiple materials. The ribs are made of laser-cut balsa wood. The leading edge is hand-cut foam. An internal spar is made out of a carbon fiber extruded tube. This structure is coated in a shrink-wrap-like plastic.

Finally, the tail stabilizers are made of laser-cut balsa covered in shrink-wrap-like plastic.

More details about the design and report are found in the design notes and final report at the bottom of this page.

The Emperor Penguin glider is a second version of the Penguin glider that was developed by Devin building off of the original design.  The main goal was to create a powered version of the original design. Other improvements include:

• Two Sets of Wings (Lightweight Foam Wings and Sturdy 3D Printed Wings)

• Larger and Sturdier Horizontal/Vertical Stabilizers

• Landing Struts

• Brushless Pusher Motor and Propeller

The foam wing iteration of the aircraft was flight-tested and successfully sustained steady-level flight. Pitch control was possible, albeit difficult. It was not able to be effectively controlled in yaw. The 3D Printed wings were too heavy for flight.

The design was limited due to material constraints (whatever Devin had lying around) and modifying an existing design rather than redesign. Potential changes to improve the design are as follows:

• Larger Propeller: The current prop is constrained by the two tail booms that were unmodified from the original design. The original design did this to simulate what a Mars version of the glider may look like, with potentially a rocket engine between the booms. A larger propeller would increase thrust without changing motor RPM, since the motor is currently overpowered for this size of propeller.

• Increased Wing Sweep/Wings Further Back: The center of lift is slightly too far forward, to the point where it is statically unstable in pitch.  This was mitigated by a nose boom with a ballast weight but could be changed with better wing placement, which would move the center of lift toward the rear.

• Larger Horizontal/Vertical Stabilizers: Pitch and yaw control were difficult to non-existent, respectively. Larger control surfaces could help.

• Larger Wings: This iteration of the aircraft still followed the wingspan limitations set by the MAE 155A class. Longer wings would help improve lift. 

The senior design class also included a quick 3-week study proposing a design for a hybrid aircraft that uses both buoyancy and aerodynamic surfaces to produce lift. Since Venus has a dense atmosphere, buoyancy is more effective. Furthermore, winds at high altitudes (where it is safe for an aircraft to fly) reach an average of 50 m/s, requiring some sort of thrust.

The final result of this project was a presentation (at the bottom of this page) and a CONOPS diagram, shown below.