In early October, Arnaud, Alfred and Teys, who are all co-operative engineers at ENSTA Bretagne, took part in an exciting experience aboard the Airbus A310 Zero-G. Over a fortnight, they headed to the Novespace site to plan and then perform tests on their drone DREAM during parabolic flights. They share their experience with you in this video.
Selected by the French National Space Agency, CNES, as part of the student program Parabole, their brief was to design a drone capable of flying whilst remaining stable during different phases of weightlessness.
The three co-operative engineers, fascinated by aeronautics and space, spent several months designing their drone (the frame was produced entirely by 3D printing) and implementing it with all the necessary electronic components whilst bearing in mind the conditions set by CNES and Novespace (for example: since batteries are not allowed aboard the Airbus Zero-G, an electrical supply cable for the drone had to be added).
At the start of October, the students spent the first week on-site preparing for the flight and installing the equipment and systems aboard the aircraft. During the second week, they conducted series of parabolic flights and were able to carry out their test campaign.
This was an extremely rewarding experience for Arnaud, Alfred and Teys, who developed technical and project management skills that will set them in good stead in their future engineering careers.
