Unmanned Firefighting Aircraft

Group project with Johnny Aros, Matt Avelar, Melvin Garcia, Paul McDaniels, and JT NicolProject G.O.L.D.S.T.A.R. (Ground Ordered Load Delivery System To Administer Retardant) employs the use of unmanned aircraft technology, a flying wing planform, and the ability to perform more fire retardant drops than any existing aircraft. The major subsystems featured in this design include: a flying wing planform with the wing properties of a cargo plane, forward mounted engines making use of the Coanda effect, a D-nozzle to improve engine characteristics in front of the wing, winglets sized using basic control theory to provide lateral stability, a nozzle system to optimize the flow of fire retardant from the tank to the flow outside of the aircraft, and a central wingbox consisting of the payload tank in combination with the engine pylons and wing spars