Back in Lexington

The team has safely arrived back in Lexington and is proud of the accomplishments that we were able to achieve this past weekend. Here are some pictures from the flight on Sunday.

Last Day of Competition

Today we were able to fly with the plane. The first flight, mission 1, was a success. A pilot from another team flew our plane the first time to test it. We then repeated mission 1 allowing our team pilot, Brady Doepke, to fly the plane. This flight was also succesful.

The second mission was 4 laps with a full water bottle which added roughly 10 lbs to the plane. We were able to complete 3.5 laps before power issues prevented the plane from continuing. Thankfully, the plane was still mostly intact after the impact.

Due to the damage that was done to the plane and the power issues, the team decided to stop with mission 2 and be able to arrive home with a plane. The team felt the competition was a success. We were in the top 50% of the competition. There was a large number of teams that weren't able to qualify due to the inspections. Our team's goal for this first venture in the AIAA DBF competition was to qualify and succesfully complete a mission, which we achieved.

Pictures from the flight will be coming.

Second Day of Competition

Today was the second day of our competition. We arrived early in anticipation of our technical inspection. Our team was one of the first teams to arrive and go through the inspections. We were unable to complete the first attempt at the inspection due to a small error in sizing, one of the dimensions was about 1/8" off. We worked to correct this and quickly signed up for the second attempt at inspections. Thankfully we were able to complete and pass all the portions of the inspections.

Inspections

More Inspections with Assembly Team

More Inspections with Assembly Team

The assembly team then went on to the timed assembly attempt and a final safety inspection. Our team was able to complete that portion as well and was ready to fly. Unfortunately, part of the assembly is to drop the boxes full of tools and the plane parts from about 6". Minor damage was done to a portion of the fuselage and wings but they were important to correct before flying. Due to time constraints, we were not able to attempt a flight but we will first thing in the morning.

Assembly Team

Of the 55 teams that were at the competition, only 14 teams have attempted the first mission at this point. We are pleased that we were able to pass the inspection and assembly portions which both seemed to be causing issues for most of the teams. We are anxiously anticipating the first flight tomorrow!

Inspection Passed

The team passed their inspection this morning and are now waiting for the timed assembly portion. Once that is complete then they can have their first flight.

More information to come.

First Day of Competition

Today was the first official day of our competition. The day consisted of technical inspections for each team. The technical inspection is comprised of several portions which must each be passed in order to begin attempting the missions. Safety is a main emphasis of the inspections, they want to ensure that each team's plane is ready and can safely fly. The inspections consist of weighing the plane, testing plane controls as well as a box test. The competition rules require that the tools and plane must fit in two boxes, each a maximum of 2'x2'x4'. The inspection team measures the box and also rotates the box on each end to test the packing of the tools and components.

Officials completing inspection testing of an entry

Our team began by observing the safety inspections of other teams. Being our first year, we were unsure how the inspections would go. After seeing a few teams fail their inspections, we realized some issues that our team would have, especially with the box. The first thing we noticed was the low tolerance for the box size. After a careful inspection we realized that due to the roofing tabs on the box, the width was just over 2'. We assessed the situation and began making modifications to our design. Also after observing the packing of other team's boxes, we decided to make some adaptations to our packing. We wanted to ensure that none of the items would move and incorporated a lot of bubble wrap and packing materials.

The wing box and team's work area

We were unable to do our technical inspections due to timing issues, there were many teams ahead of us and they closed the site for the evening. We are on the list and will be one of the first teams to test in the morning. Lots of teams were having difficulties with the inspections today, there are still 25 teams signed up after us for their inspections.

Fuselage and landing gear

Wing Box

The team is working on a few more changes and alterations to the plane and packing. We are preparing for tomorrow and hopeful that we will pass our inspections and be able to begin the mission tests.

Arrival in Tucson

The flight crew and assembly team are now in Tucson, AZ. All shipped parts and tools arrived at the hotel just before the team's arrival. Competition Box construction is underway while the remaining boxes are unpacked and the competition batteries are charged.

Here's some pictures from the flight test to tie you over until the next update.

Plane Construction

After flying the ARF plane the team began prototyping. Many hours were put into the construction of our first prototype and competition plane. The propulsion hardware was selected and the rest of the plane was constructed to be compatible. The team divided into three basic subgroups for aircraft construction: fuselage, wings, and tail.



The first prototype "Plane 42" took a turn for the worst during flight testing. With stability problems reduced a new plane was constructed.



One step in the fuselage process holding the birch cross sections in place while basswood strips were inserted. The birch panels were cut from a CAD model using a laser cutter. Later the basswood strips were covered with a sheet of thin birch to form a strong and aerodynamic shell.



Foam was cut using a hot wire cutter and laser cut forms to create sections of the tail and other structural molds. After the molds were cut, they were attached to basswood spar members and the entire surface was epoxied to add strength to the lightweight foam.




With a complete competition plane the Design Build Fly team set out for flight testing.

The ARF Plane

One of the key aspects of the Design Build Fly competition is the requirement that the plane structures must not be derived from pre-assembled parts. For a team in their first year of competition, this is a very daunting idea. A plane is a piece of machinery with obviously requires very careful construction and planning in order to work properly. Without the benefits of using the pre-made parts of more experienced designers, the entire process instantanesouly becomes magnitudes of order more complicated.

In order to gain the experience needed to complete our own design though, our team made the choice to buy and complete an Almost Ready to Fly, or ARF, Plane.

Example of an ARF Plane

The hope was that by designing a plane that had some similarities to the our competition plane, we could gain some basic background knowledge which we could apply to our own design.

The process began soon after the initial tests of the Duraplanes which our team created, and continued throughout the next few months until the determination was made to retire the plane until it might be needed again since it was felt the experience had generated about as much as it currently could.

Students doing pre-flight work on our ARF Plane

The ARF Plane awaiting its turn to fly

Check back soon for video of our ARF Plane in action.

Design Build Fly - An Overview

In Fall 2008, as part of the senior design class required by the University for graduation in Mechanical Engineering, the UK Design Build Fly team was created. This group, made up initially of 11 seniors, quickly expanded to close to 30 people. The goal was to compete in a competition which required a plane to be built without the aid of pre-constructed parts (with exception in areas such as motors). With stringent requirements to be met in order to be eligible to compete (Complete Rules can be found at http://www.aiaadbf.org/) the team set-out to undertake this enormous task.

With the competition less than a month away, this blog will serve to give updates to the progress of the team as it prepares for its entry into AIAA's Design Build Fly contest. Please continue to check in regularly for information about our team's progress.

The following are pictures from our early construction attempts on duraplanes done earlier last semester:

The lab

Students Monokoting a wing

Working on the tail

The labs favorite actress

Ready to fly

To see the plane take-off, please visit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31347822@N04/2935877567/in/set-72157607977664207/

For more pictures of the beginnings of Design Build Fly, you can also visit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31347822@N04/

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