Unified Engineering Flight Competition

 

At the end of every academic year the Aero Astro Departement's (Course 16) Unified Engineering Course holds a Flight competition.  This course is required for all students in Course 16.  The class is composed of 5 disciplines Thermodynamics, Fluid Dynamics, Signals and Systems, Materials and Structures, and Systems and Labs.  The labs of second semster revolve around the different components of aircraft design including aerodynamics, propulsion, control, packaging, and construction.

 

Overview:

In this laboratory students will get to design, build and fly a remote controlled (RC) aircraft as part of the Unified Engineering Flight Competition (UEFC).  This year’s competition involves the theme “green aviation” including recharging of batteries using thin film photovoltaics and associated electronics on the RC aircraft.  Mission 1 is a speed mission, while Mission 2 is a maximum distance mission. Student teams are allowed optional recharging between missions.  The lab consists of (i) designing a competitive RC aircraft system, (ii) manufacturing and testing that system and (iii) competing in the UEFC with that system.

 

Background:

Increasingly there is a desire to reduce fuel burn in aviation (specifically: thrust specific fuel consumption TSFC) to carry  passengers and cargo across large distances.  One way to reduce fuel burn is to reduce speed, however this decreases the value of transportation for customers.  The ultimate frontier is to be able to fly without consuming fossil fuels at all.  The Solar Impulse project, for example, has set a goal of circumnavigating the Earth only on solar power by 2016.  The Solar Impulse aircraft design makes extensive use of thin conformal solar panels on the topside of its wings.