Design Build Fly

Background

Design Build Fly is an annual RC airplane student competition held by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). The goal of each year is to design and build an airplane to complete three flight missions and one ground mission, while trying to maximize the score. The MAE 151 team is tasked to design a glider that is to autonomously fly, do a 180-degree turn and land in a designated 200x200 foot target area. This glider is part of 2 of the 3 flight missions as well as the ground mission.

Design Overview

Our glider features a rectangular wing with an H-tail in order to wrap around the body of the fuselage. This design will allow our glider to mount to the fuselage of the main plane better as well as reducing the overall drag of the main plane. We plan on using a Speedybee F405Wing flight controller in order to be able to complete the autonomous flight components of the mission.

Goals and Objectives

Our Goal for this project is to land the glider successfully, fulfilling all AIAA requirements, along with making a design that allows our glider to minimize the overall drag of the main airplane and glider. We hope to place in the top 10 in the AIAA competition, improving UCI’s overall score of 23rd from last year.

Decide on mechanical or electrical design for glider: Done Oct 24th

Create preliminary CAD of the glider: Done November 4th

Finalize electronics decisions and have them ordered: Done November 14th

Preliminary concept and prototype: December 11th

1st Successful Flight Test: January 13th

1st retest after glider iteration: February 23rd

Finalize design after second iteration: February 14th

Contact Information:

Team Members:

Hunter Walsh: walshh@uci.edu

Peter Tran: peternt1@uci.edu

Kyle Chen: kechen2@uci.edu