Project Details

The Challenge | Fly-by-Wireless

Beginning with the design or concept of a current aircraft or spacecraft, your challenge is to engineer the design of the first aircraft or spacecraft with no wires, connectors, or penetrations! You may choose to add functions that the original vehicle does not have. Be sure to identify future aerospace applications as specifically as possible.

Fly by Wireless

Making an aircraft wireless

Zika Zirow

We had a lot of challenges with this project. First we had to face the biggest problem, which was the distribution of wireless energy on an aircraft, but we were able to solve it by having a wire create a limited magnetic field that will not cause any interference with the communication system.

The described system will power the whole electrical interface of the aircraft, using induction to transfer energy. For the data transfer system, we will use an already existing product, which is the WAIC (Wireless Aviation Intra-Communication). This will provide us with 100% wireless data transfer with security. We adapted the WAIC to make it having a multi processor computer on board to read all the informations and send it to the cabin.

Also, all of the information will be redundant and encrypted, so no one can get hold of this kind of information. The WAIC system works on a frequency between 4.2 - 4.4gHz, which is a frequency band exclusive for comercial aircrafts. All of this work, impacts on a reduction of 90% on all wiring of an aircraft and make an economy of approximately $90.000.000,00 per year, calculated in terms of the additional cargo that the companies can put in because of the weigh loss on the aircraft.