M. Gunderman
airplanes | rockets | cars | other
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My name is Michael Gunderman.
I'm currently a senior mechanical engineer at Stratolaunch, where I work on Talon-A.

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side projects

    > Arduino instro
    Project to make a data collection unit (GPS data, motor RPM, and pitot tube) with an arduino nano. I'm building
    this to combine with a project to build a small, fast EDF-powered plane. I'm doing this because I have a lot of
    models estimating the performance of electric aircraft, and while I have built a ton of RC airplanes, I'm looking
    for more specific information. I honestly could have used a pixhawk for this purpose, but where's the fun in that?
    code | img


    > Electric Aircraft Performance Studies (2024 - Present)
    One of my friends posted something online that sounded overly optimistic, so I went down a small rabbit hole.
    These are performance trades to understand the capabilities of GA and commercial electric aircraft with current tech.
    Analysis | Notes/Ramblings


    > "Igloo 23 VTOL" (2020)
    I ran out of time to finish flight-testing the Gemini V2 project before graduation, but I was able to borrow a bunch
    of the hardware (motors and such). I slapped it onto a foamboard RC plane I built, upgraded the motor mounting arms
    with fiberglass "arms" and 3d printed motor mounts. I was able to do a bunch of flight testing to mature the flight
    controls I originally developed for the Gemini V2. This is also where I originally made the initial version of my
    arduino instro for measuring motor RPMs for the front and rear motors. Based on that data and the published information
    on our propellers, I was looking to come up with crude aerodynamic performance estimates. That wasn't very useful for
    the Igloo 23 specifically, but would have been very cool for use with the Gemini V2! After
    that project, I returned those motors 
    Project Summary | img_airborne | img | CAD_img


    > Solar EVTOL Gemini V2 (2019)
    2019 Project to modify a Gemini V2 with VTOL and Solar Capability for the Ohio State Space Grant Consortium.
    I did lots of electrical/mechanical integration and a custom Pixhawk firmware build. We built 20-lb, 10ft wingspan
    plane in a semester. I was primarily concerned with integration of electrical systems (that was most of the project's
    complexity), but also building the basic Gemini V2 kitplane and ensuring we had a flyable RC plane. I also did a bunch
    of work to try to predict the cruise/hover performance we'd get. In the aircraft's final configuration, we did a
    fixed-wing flight and a quick hover demonstration. Unfortunately ran out of time to tune the controller and explore its
    capabilities, some of that work was furthered in the Igloo 23 VTOL project.
    Analysis | img | img_airborne


contact:
gundermgg@gmail.com | linkedin