Phase II Final Report - NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts

Planetary Exploration Using Biomimetics
An Entomopter for Flight on Mars
throughout a flap cycle. It should be noted the angle is for a horizontal wing. By twisting the
wing we can adjust the absolute angle to one better suited for generating lift.
α = Tan −1 ( V w
V f
)
Equation 3-35
As can be seen from these figures, changing the flight speed (V f ) has a significant effect on the
wing angle. Changing the maximum flap angle, along with the corresponding change in frequency,
did not have much effect on the wing angle of attack profile.
100
100
80
80
60
60
40
40
Maximum
Maximum
Flap
Flap
Angle
Angle
65°
65°
Flapping
Flapping
Frequency
Frequency
11.93
11.93
Hz
Hz
Excess
Excess
Mass
Mass
Capacity
Capacity
1.5
1.5
kg
kg
Wing
Wing
Length
Length
0.6
0.6 m
Flight
Flight
Velocity
Velocity 2
m/s
m/s
20
20
0
-20
-20
0.08 0.15 0.23 0.30 0.38 0.45 0.53 0.60 0.68 0.75 0.83 0.90 0.98
0.08 0.15 0.23 0.30 0.38 0.45 0.53 0.60 0.68 0.75 0.83 0.90 0.98
r = 0.1
0.1
r = 0.2
0.2
r = 0.3
0.3
r = 0.4
0.4
r = 0.5
0.5
r = 0.6
0.6
-40
-40
-60
-60
-80
-80
-100
-100
Wing Flap Cycle
Wing Flap Cycle
Figure 3-104: Angle of Attack for a Maximum Flap Angle of 65 o and Flight Speed of 2 m/s
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Phase II Final Report