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Executive Summary
NikolaDrive Team
The design report presented here was commissioned by the Solar Impulse initiative for the
design of a gearbox for the titular aircraft. NikolaDrive is a collective of highly motivated
innovative aeronautical engineers, who form a vital subdivision within the Solar Impulse family.
Headed by our chief engineer Mark Driscoll, the team embarked on the proposed design for
a double branch double reduction gearbox, intended for use on the final aircraft. The team
had 3 main design goals: Minimize weight, maximize efficiency and endure the aircraft’s
lifetime.
Integrated design principles were used for the design of Gears, Shafts and Bearings in our
system. A targeted safety factor of 1.5 was chosen for our general design allowing for static,
dynamic, and fatigue failure analysis to be performed on each component. The designs were
iterated until satisfactory results were obtained. All components fall within a safety factor of
1.5. The whole system operates at power losses below 5% as desired. The weight of our
system is 14.4 kg, which did not meet the target criterion of 5.5 kg. Further refinement in
future designs could be considered.
The NikolaDrive Team is proud to present its first and most innovative design: Solar Impulse
Double Branch Double Reduction Gearbox.
Individual Contribution
The NikolaDrive team consists of three engineers, Georges Matta, Stanislav Nemirovsky and
Riad Haissam El Charif, working under the supervision of Mr. Driscoll. With such a tightly knit
and well-functioning unit, all members had significant contributions on each aspect of design.
However, a rough division of individual contribution can nonetheless be made.
Georges Matta, a U3 Mechanical Engineering Student at McGill University, oversaw
spreadsheet production, gear design, as well as material and bearing selection.
Riad Haissam El Charif, also a U3 Mechanical Engineering Student at McGill University
worked on shaft and bearing design, layout, and optimization.
Finally, Stanislav Nemirovsky, U3 Mechanical Engineering, optimized and realized the design
for the bearings, shafts, as well as the gear parameters.
The apparent division of labor provided a rough structure of the team’s organization; however, it
should be reemphasized that NikolaDrive operates on a highly collaborative structure, in which
team members share a significant amount of responsibilities