An in-house designed Flight Controller for generic multi-rotor RC aircraft being tested

Renderings of quadrotors designed by students

A solar powered model aircraft prepares to take flight

Quadrotor platforms eagerly awaiting their humanfolk for testing and take-off

CFD studies on a rotor as it approaches a wall in ground effect

A test rig for simulating ground resonance in rotorcraft on pitching ship decks

Rotor wake in forward flight simulated using the free-wake method

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Part of the Aerospace Engineering Department at IIT Madras, RAFT, focuses on research pertaining to rotary-wing aircraft and other innovative flight technologies.

We explore multiple avenues of aeromechanics which include experimental studies on rotor-based aircraft, numerical modeling of the aerodynamic environment around a rotor, studies on dynamic inflow modelling, dynamic stall, dynamic soaring and flapping wing flight to name a few.
Flight dynamics and controls are also pursued, involving investigations on ground and air resonance phenomena and their predictive methods, effects of dynamic stall on stability of helicopters, and trajectory tracking and optimisation. This challenging interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary aspect of rotorcraft research gathers together students and researchers here, all attempting to unravel the mysteries of flight, one tangle at a time. Ceaselessly persistent, never yielding...

Designed by Priyanth Elango
Last Revised: 27/05/2021