New Mini Fuel Injector Sets Pace for UAV's

When aerospace companies set out to make reliable engines for small UAVs, they call in designers who work with printers. That’s how John Da Cunha got involved in the defense business. The researcher left a product-development job at Hewlett-Packard to get in the defense game with NWUAV Propulsion Systems, an Oregon-based company that makes engines for Insitu, a UAV shop that in turn makes the ScanEagle for boieng. Fluids act differently at small scales, and so engines for diminutive, lightweight aircraft need to be designed from scratch. Instead of using pumps, tiny engines rely on capillary action and surface tension to control droplets of fuel.