Physics Behind Drone Flight

A drone flies by using its downward thrust and forcing air in a particular direction in order to sustain a certain speed as well as a specific height. In this video my friend and I had been flying a drone at exactly 4 mph which converts to 1.788 m/s. In this project, we will be determining the forces acting upon the drone in order to sustain a consistent flight in terms of velocity and height while excluding the effects of air resitance.

The drone is flying at an angle of 28˚, this is found by extending the tilted axis of the drone to the horizontal and finding the angle with a protractor. From this angle we will be able to calculate the downward thrust and the acceleration of the drone that allows it to maintain its height and velocity during flight. When the mass of the drone is taken it results in 734 grams or .734 kilograms, which will also be used for the calculations within the project.

The freebody diagram pictured above will alow us to derive the force equations for the forces acting upon the drone. These equations are pictured below:

∑Fx = Tsinø = ma

∑Fy = Tcosø - mg = 0

To solve for acceleration, solve for T and insert into other equation:

To solve for the force of the downard thrust, use initial equation:

Through these calculations, we have concluded that when the drone flies and air resistance and drag are neglected, the downard thrust required to sustain the given velocity would be 8.147 newtons at twenty-eight degrees clockwise from straight up. While traveleing at the given velocity with this level of thrust, the value for aceleration would be 5.21 m/s^2.

If this information is compared with the analyzed data that has been derived from the drone flight using Logger Pro, the results are very similar with the value of acceleration being 5.72 m/s^2. This slight error in values could be accounted for within the labeling in Logger Pro or numerical values provided by the controller of the drone as well as the air resistance that has been neglected. Consequently, the results that were obtained can be considered accurate to a certain extent. Therefore, the drone was flying near these acceleration values with a downward thrust of 8.147 newtons.

Allain, Rhett. “How Do Drones Fly? Physics, of Course!” Wired, Conde Nast, 2 June 2017, www.wired.com/2017/05/the-physics-of-drones/.

“Drones.” Physics: Drones, chiayolin.org/physics_drone/.

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