Auxillary Power Unit

Stowaway arrested on US Airways flight leaving Tampa

Tampa, Florida-- A US Airways employee is under arrest after officials at Tampa International say the man snuck aboard a Charlotte bound jet hiding in the plane's auxiliary power unit panel, then caught a connecting flight to Pittsburgh.

The man, who has not yet been identified, was taken into custody by Alleghaney County Police after the plane landed in Pittsburgh according to CBS affiliate WBTV-TV .

US Airways flight 908, left Tampa around 5:30 Tuesday morning before arriving in Charlotte an hour and 23 minutes later. It remains unclear how the worker, a maintenance employee for US Airways managed to switch flights and obtain a boarding pass for the Pittsburgh leg of his flight.

The Transportation Security Investigation confirmed it was investigating the incident and says federal officials aggressively pursue civil penalties against those who abuse the trusted status given to aviation employees.

A spokeswoman for Tampa International Airport says the man had valid credentials to gain access to restricted sections of the airport. US Airways did not return our call Tuesday.

UAV auxiliary power unit (APU)

This company basically have there own kit to put together but i was looking at the engine in particular. They have a chain running off the shaft of the 28 cc pusher gas 2 stroke engine to an APU unit. This allows for power to be generated as long as the engine is running. It can also charge batteries so when the engine fails, the batteries can take over immediately. My thoughts are if the power is being generated constantly, we don't need to worry about batteries, which means we can use bigger motors and thus bigger props to lift the whole damn thing up. The engine can be left on idle while exposed to air to cool it, maybe a servo linked to its throttle in case "we" need to put our foot down for short periods during the mission. I'd be cautious of doing that to often, since there wouldn't be a prop running air over the engine I'd think there's a risk of overheating. My thought is that the "3 hour observation period" of the challenge is really a gift if you are using these - because you can use that time to recharge a flight pack. Meaning that we could use 1/2 the batteries we would need otherwise (assuming the power output is enough to charge the batteries in that time on TOP of running the surveilance and transmission systems) There are already remote engine starters for glow engines. They've been around for years and they work fairly well. In fact, there are already generators for glow engines as well. They don't generate the current required for this kind of operation so building an alternator/rectifier/regulator would have to be a customize endeavour. The tough part will be overcoming the cogging of the alternator while starting the engine. I'm not sure you'll be able to keep the weight down and restart the engine unless you can de-couple the alternator from the engine. It's probably do-able but it will take some crafty engineering.

Experimental towboats

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CRJ 700 Aircraft Systems Study Guide

Code of Federal Regulations, Title 14, Aeronautics and Space, Pt. 1-59, Revised as of January 1, 2010

Aircraft Engine and Auxiliary Power Unit Emissions Testing: Volume 3, Particulate Matter Results