As an undergraduate, I was a member of the UVA Solar Airship Project. This was an entirely student run engineering project that included over 30 engineers, business, designers, commerce and other students for over 7 years. It was funded through in-kind donations from major organizations (e.g. Microsoft, Boeing, NASA) and volunteer driven.

Our mission statement was:

Design and build a solar-powered airship capable of continuous, autonomous flight.

The objective was to develop a long-term sustainable platform for low-earth communications, and observations. By being able to stay on-station for long-periods of time due to low energy requirements and renewable solar power – it would be possible to have highly available and serviceable “earth-bound” satellites.

When I joined the project in 1996 the first iteration, Duncan was just finishing up flight testing. Duncan was a 5-meter long, wing-shaped airship with an internal structure. The goal was to demonstrate active-lift and wireless, electronic (RC) control system.

In 1996 we began planning and building the second interation, Aztec. Aztec was 20-meters long and 5-meters in diameter, included an onboard autonomous control system, wireless radio modem, power system, cameras, and sensors.

Over the 4 years I worked on the project I was a control team member, team lead, and then VP of Engineering and Summer Internship Director for two years.

UVA Solar Airship Aztec outside the hangar.

As part of our undergraduate studies in Engineering we were required to do a thesis. My research involved developing the dynamic modelling algorithms, as well as the feedback control algorithms and software. This research culminated in my undergraduate senior thesis, as well as a paper for the 3rd annual Airship Association Conference in Friedrichshafen, Germany (July 1-5, 2000). Copies of each of these documents can be found below.

Development of a Semi-Autonomous Control System for the UVA Solar Airship Aztec

• Turner, A.J., 4th Annual AIAA & AAS Airship Conference. Friedrichshafen, Germany (PDF – 0.5 MB)
• Turner, A.J., Undergraduate Thesis (PDF – 4.80 MB)