Re: Control electronics
Having thought about it a bit more, I think that the soton students might just go for an entirely dynamics based solution, based upon accelerometer feedback and orientation. For example, when all the accelerometer rates are low and you're upright and moderately level you can assume that you're in controlled flight without needing to know airspeeds, pressures and descent rates etc. For navigation you just add monitoring of where you are with where you want to be, make a control input and monitor the results from the accelerometers to keep inside the controlled flight envelope. Such a system wouldn't be good for following a set flight-path or arriving at a certain point at a certain time, which would need airspeed etc. but that's not really needed for LOHAN anyway; it just needs to get back on the ground in roughly the right place.
The more I think about it, the better it sounds, and it does away with some instruments that have quite a lot of potential to not only go wrong but also add weight. For example a frozen pitot tube is a real risk (I'm sure there won't pitot heating on Vulture 2) and the barometer, which will be affected by local weather systems could be dumped too. Sure, they could still be carried, but would only provide data of academic interest.
We'll see though...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
