Fabrication

Antenna Fabrication:

Design a quarter-wave monopole.  Enclose the antenna in a fiberglass hollow rod or Sullivan pushrod sleeve.  Have the antenna flush against the body when retracted, via a servo mechanism that allows you to deploy it vertically after take-off (and retract before landing). The autopilot should auto-deploy and retract the antenna based on height AGL at the "take off" and "landing" locations.

There are two viable methods for retracting the antenna.  One is by employing a standard servo with 90 degrees of motion to change from vertical (deployed) to horizontal (stowed against the body); the other is by using a winch servo (VSD-22YMB, which can do up to 6 turns) with a kevlar line attached to the end of the antenna, effectively "reeling in" the end like a big fish.  This would not place the antenna flat against the body, but it would "bow it in" like a fishing rod.

Thin-wire radials (of one-half wavelength at the lowest freqency in use) should be impregnated in the wings and fuselage for use as a ground plane, rather than trying to secure an electrical connection to the epoxy-impregnated carbon fiber body/wings.

Another alternative would be to create a similar retract mechanism using a coaxial dipole instead (which would obviate the need for a ground plane - a requirement for the end-fed monopole).  In most cases, several ferrite beads (type 61 material) should be used where the coax meets the load, to prevent the feed line from radiating.

Antenna Miscellaneous:

• Design software and formulas for various antenna types
• Antenna theory for many different types of antennas
• Circuit Board quarter-wave monopole antennas
• Cheap Chinese 900MHz dipole with swivel base
• Circularly polarized annual ring microstrip antenna (pdf)
• Annular slot antenna (patent 6121936)
• 100MHz to 900MHz DIY antenna analyzer
• Build a 1GHz RF spectrum analyzer
• Nanette: annual ring/slot antenna, aka top loaded monopole

Adhesives:

• 3M VHB tape sets in 24 hours and is used to mount glass in high-rises.

Body/Parts:

• Molded Akulon Polyamide
• Shapeways 3D printing (plastic, metal, etc)
• Ponoko Personal Factory

Integrated:

• MPU-6000 Tri-Axis Gyro + Accel + Fusion
• HMC6343 Tri-Axis Compass + Accel with Algorithms

Power:

• A123 Systems High Power LiPo's

Concepts:

• Gress Aero - Roll-Yaw Coupling

Test Platform:

• Sky Surfer V2 Glider

Ground Station:

• osgEARTH library for OpenSceneGraph

Standards - It would be nice to adhere to the following standards:

• MIL-STD-1553
• ARINC 429
• Wind River VXworks RTOS?
• See GE Ruggedized Systems