Senior Project Presentation

Today the Aero Team presented their project in front of the faculty and students of the engineering department. The forty minute presentation included an overview of the competition, background research, the current design of the plane, and plans for future construction.

team

10/27 Material Budget Proposal

Today the team met with the Dean to discuss the material budget. The team had prepared a presentation that went over each of the components in detail. After explaining the design and displaying an itemized list of all of the materials needed, the Dean agreed to allocate the amount of money requested to the team. The team will begin ordering parts soon.

10/13 Engine Testing

Today  the team worked on testing the engine. The engine from last year’s competition is in great shape and  is being reused for this year. After testing several different props, as well as applying a headwind, the team collected a lot of data which will determine which prop to use. The amount of engine thrust, will also be used to finish the wing calculations.

engine testing

9/27/2015

The team tested possible configurations for the payload design. The rules of the competition state that each payload must be two pounds and have a five foot ribbon attached to it. The ribbons can not be tangled and must completely deploy. In order to test their design the team acquired five two-pound containers of salt and attached the ribbons to them.  The ribbons were wrapped up in different configurations. The team then dropped the containers from fifty feet up and watched to see if their design deployed correctly. They discovered that the design that worked best had the ribbon wrapped halfway across the container.

PayloadFoldedDesign

 

9/16/2015

Today the team presented a travel budget to the Dean. The presentation explored three different options for the competition. They could either fly to California and compete in the West competition in April, or drive or fly to Texas and compete in the East competition  in March. The Dean approved the team’s budget request to compete in California as well as approved the registration fee. This gives an addition five weeks of time for testing the plane.

9/10/2015

The new rules for the SAE Aero Design Competition: Advanced Class were released today. After reading them, the team realized that the design they had been working on during the summer would not meet the requirements of the new rules. They decided to start the design over again. The team is currently spending time understanding the rules and brainstorming new plane concepts.

Updates!

1/18/2016

The full arm component was 3D printed in actual size to provide a visual aid for the initial design.

The initial material for the plate was ordered and the final design of the shoulder plate is being finalized based off of the 3D printed prototype.

The 3D prototype is shown below.

12/3/2015

The shoulder plate and lever were 3D printed at a smaller scale in order to provide a visual aid for the initial design.

The 3D prototype is shown below.