CFD
Aero lab
50+ CFD runs on the high-speed drone. I compared a blunt end with a tapered one, and tested a wing mounted horizontally and vertically at different incidence angles and speeds.
This started at Northeastern. For the capstone we ran CFD and wind tunnel tests on the shell, and used dimensional analysis to check one against the other. Once they lined up, I felt good relying on CFD for the versions that came after.
Blunt end vs. tapered end
Adding a wing
The standard V4 body with no wing, then with a horizontal wing and a vertical wing. With a wing, the lift to drag ratio more than doubles at the angles the drone actually flies at.
The no-wing runs were done at other speeds, so their drag is scaled to 143 mph by speed squared.