[BridlingtonFlyer]

read the rules twice, once to see what they say, second time to see what you can bend and get away with.

lol i like your method.

[Will]

Sorry, but I feel an answer to a question about an undergraduate project doesn't necessarily have to be phrased for non-engineers.

PDR

lol, one of the joys of engineering is being able to talk about stuff most people don't understand.

Anyone thought of tandem wing?

Will

[mach1uk]

Hi,

I came third in last years competition with Sheffield Hallam University.

Pictures from the event and building can be seen here.

http://www.users.waitrose.com/~mhoyland/Uni%20Challenge%202005.htm

http://www.users.waitrose.com/~mhoyland/unical2005.htm

Aircraft would have carried more weight and I think we could have won but exams the day before the presentations meant lack of test flying!

Any questions then please ask.

Regards,

Matt

[BridlingtonFlyer]

Congrats on third thats a great achivement and one i can only hope to achieve.  Have you got any more information about your team.  How many was in your team?  How long did it take you to build?  Did any of you have prior model knowledge?  Did any or the team members fly your plane?  What software did you use to design your plane with?  Also where did you have the lazer CAM work done i'm assuming at Sheffield Uni?

Does anyone else know of any software i should be using to design the plane with?  I have Autocad and i can get access to a student verion of solidworks.  Would either of these be good?

[mach1uk]

There was two in our team, I designed the wings and empennage and my team mate did the fuselage.

The build took from February to May.  I have prior model knowledge, I won the 2001 Standard Class aerobatics at the Nationals with a model I designed and built from scratch, currently in FAI class flying F3a aerobatics.  I did all the test flying and flew the model at the competition, it was the only model to complete two flights and not sustain any damage.

I used Pro Engineer to model the aircraft.  Design was done using mainly Excel.  JavaFoil, do a search in google is a good programme for analying different 2D aerofoil sections.  We had a laser cutter at Sheffield Hallam University so we were able to use this.

I would suggest you need a good 3D modelling package, especially if you intend to do Finite Element Analysis and Computational Fluid Dynamics on the model, therefore something better than AutoCad is required, no experience of Solid works.

Matt

[Tom T]

sorry to bring back an old thread but does anyone have a list of universities that take part in the challenge? I know University of Strathclyde and the University of Sheffield do. But who else?

Cheers
Tom

[tsr]

lol, one of the joys of engineering is being able to talk about stuff most people don't understand.

Anyone thought of tandem wing?

Will

I wondered if a tandem wing as in the Quickie might work quite well for this exercise. It might be worth a paper exercise as PDR outlined. Still this did all happen a long time ago anyone know if anything came of it.

[stukno]

Hi Tom,
I advise that you speak to the BMFA before going far into the challenge. There was talk last year that the competition may be the last one.  I hope not but there were questions about the level of support from Universities and other issues.

Report back on what you find out?
stu k

[PDR]

I wondered if a tandem wing as in the Quickie might work quite well for this exercise. It might be worth a paper exercise as PDR outlined. Still this did all happen a long time ago anyone know if anything came of it.

Model all the configurations in a spreadsheet (very simple stuff - all the necessary sums can be found expressed in very simple terms in Daryl's Red Book) and compare the results. In general a canard or tandem-wing design will never be as efficient as a "conventional" design because it has half the aspect ratio for a given wing area (like a biplane, causing higher drag but without the structural advantages) and because you can never run the rearward surface close to Cl(max) without risking a catastrophic rear-surface stall. But there can be exceptions which is why you need to model each configuration and see where it takes you. For example Rutan's Voyager was able to exploit the tandem config because it was optimised for range (Cl/Cd(max)) so it didn't need to come close to Cl(max) and accepted the danger of poor stalling habits as something the crew had to deal with. This challenge is targetted at ultimate lifting ability, which is very much a Cl(max) problem.

PDR

[firefox]

Hi Tom,
I advise that you speak to the BMFA before going far into the challenge. There was talk last year that the competition may be the last one.  I hope not but there were questions about the level of support from Universities and other issues.

Report back on what you find out?
stu k

I can confirm that the Heavy Lift is alive and kicking, in fact it has got it's largest entry so far!

The Electric challenge has the biggest number of entries.

http://www.bmfa.org/unichallenge/index.html

[stukno]

HI Firefox,

Really pleased to hear that.  I have attended this event for the last couple of years, once as flag waver and last year  was roped into being pilot for a couple of the teams

I was lucky enough to act as pilot to the winning team and to another entry in the Heavy Lift that refused to fly with any weight on board and eventually made a 100 yard 'hop' while unloaded with no directional control whatsoever!!

It was a good day all round!  I shall be back this year.

stu k

[Tom T]

I was just looking at aerospace engineering at universities and it just caught my eye, looks like a good competition. I'm not at uni yet, i'm a a year or two off but just saw it.