Design/Build/Fly Aircraft Design Competition

The team’s objective is to build two radio-controlled electric-powered aircraft in accordance with the rules of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Design/Build/Fly competition. The production aircraft must be able to carry a 32-ounce soft drink bottle internally and complete a timed flight mission. It must be able to be disassembled and loaded into a manufacturing support aircraft, which also has to complete the flight mission. The team’s objectives are to build the lightest possible planes and to minimize the subassemblies of the production aircraft. The team opted for two subassemblies and designed an aircraft with a minimized front profile that enabled optimization of size and weight. Manufacturing techniques include foam core composite prototyping, 3-D printing, carbon fiber wing layups, and precision, laser-cut wood structures. Using these techniques in tandem with mission-specific designs resulted in two aircraft capable of achieving a maximum score under competition rules.