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A group of senior mechanical engineering majors will leave late this afternoon for Cocoa Beach, Fla., to enter a radio-controlled aircraft in the Aero Design Competition sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers.
Erol Ulucakli, associate professor of mechanical engineering, has been advising the team of seniors Ductri Nguyen (Manville, N.J.), Timothy Dooner (Malvern, Pa.), Thomas Burns (Malvern, Pa.), Carl Haslestad (Longwood, Fla.), Brian Holt (Topanga, Calif.), Andrew Maurer (Selinsgrove, Pa.), Jason Monico (Succasunna, N.J.), and Christian Henry (Bellvale, N.Y.).
For their senior design project, the students designed, built, and tested a radio-controlled aircraft that can take off and land while carrying the heaviest possible cargo. Each student has been responsible for a major portion of the project, such as making theoretical calculations, analyzing the wings and tail, working with the controls, conducting computer analysis of the frame, and testing the engine.
“The project combines everything we’ve learned so far, especially fluid mechanics and aerodynamics,” says Nguyen, who found it challenging to start from scratch. “It’s hard to get the first step going. If you have a previous project already made, there’s some ground to begin with, but this started from zero, so it took us a while to get the basics of what we need to do and what our goals are.”
The plane has one engine and four small battery-powered motors powering the ailerons that are attached to the wings and allow the aircraft to move vertically. The craft weighs 50 lbs and spans 80 inches from wingtip to wingtip. The cargo bay measures 300 cubic inches and the fuel tank has capacity of 12 ounces.
At the competition, the team will be evaluated on its design, which will be outlined in a written report, and on the performance of the plane, which will be controlled by a professional pilot. Each aircraft must demonstrate that it is capable of taking off within a 200-foot runway and successfully land while carrying a minimum payload of eight pounds. Increasing amounts of weight will be added to the plane at the competition to determine how much it can carry.
There are two other senior design projects in the mechanical engineering department that also are entered in competitions: a BattleBot and a mini-Baja off-road car. In addition, two students are working on improvements to a Basic Utility Vehicle designed and constructed by Lafayette students last year.
