SAE Aero Design - Micro Class 2016-2017
Project Information (click text to open)
Technical Inspection Check Sheet - Micro Class
Presentation Guidelines/Judging Criteria
AT THE COMPETITION
The team traveled to Fort Worth, Texas to compete in the SAE Aero Design: West Micro competition. In the Micro class, there were 25 teams who showcased their design through an inspection, an oral presentation, and flight testing. An image of the finished design used at the competition is found below.
For the inspection portion of the competition, three judges inspected the plane to ensure that all guidelines on the "Technical Inspection check sheet" (found above) have been met. The judges passed our plane for all of the guidelines, allowing the team to participate in flight testing. A photo at the technical inspection is seen below.
Once the technical inspection was complete, the team performed an oral presentation in front of four different judges in a separate conference room. This presentation was roughly 10-15 minutes long, introducing the plane design, calculations/analysis, and testing results. A link to the full presentation can be found below.
SAE competition oral presentation
Once the oral presentation was complete, it was time for the flight testing. The flight testing spanned over two days, with three tests coming on the first day and three tests on the second. During the first round, only 4 of the 25 teams were able to complete a successful flight, which consisted of flying the plane in a complete circle roughly 300 yards in perimeter and landing the plane at the starting point with no components of the plane coming loose in the process. Only a handful of the teams were able to get their plane flying in the air. Our plane was flying successfully, getting about halfway through the flight before a push rod came loose from the horizontal stabilizer, causing the plane to crash. Our team was the only one to have a malfunction mid-flight, which was especially unfortunate because it was not a design flaw, but rather a flaw putting together the plane. Our team was the only one to have such a malfunction. A video of the first flight can be found below.
After the nosedive, the wing and tail mount of the plane split in half. The team tried to epoxy all the broken parts back together, but the plane did not fly smoothly following the crash. The epoxy misaligned the center of gravity, the plane had trouble being stable after the crash. A video showing the problems after the first flight can be found below.
Since the plane had trouble flying after the crash, the team did not finish a successful flight at the competition. Since there was not a successful flight, the team did not receive any flight score at the competition.
AFTER THE COMPETITION
Once the competition ended, the team got back to work on making improvements for another successful flight. The team made modifications to the fuselage, the tail mount, and the carbon fiber rod of the body. After the modifications were made, the team mimicked the flight course in Fort Worth to see if a successful flight was possible. The plane ended up flying the replicated course perfectly, and landed smoothly without any components of the plane coming loose. A video of the successful flight can be seen below.
If the malfunction would not have happened at the competition, and the flight you see in the "Successful flight video" occurred at the competition, the team would have easily placed in the top 5 in regards to flight score. Although there was not a successful flight at the competiton, the plane was able to fly successfully and performed much better than the majority of the 25 teams present in Fort Worth.