AIAA Design, Build & Fly Competition 2019/2020 Experience

This blog discusses about our fascinating experience at the AIAA DBF 2019/2020 Competition

From September 2019, we embarked a tremendous journey to represent our university in its first ever International Competition, AIAA Design, Build & Fly 2020. The competition from the outset was a challenging task as 150 of the world’s top universities were competing to become the best RC Aircraft Designer.

The AIAA Design, Build & Fly Competition is a prestigious annual event which takes place in Wichita, Kansas, USA. The competition is sponsored by giants of the aviation industry such as Textron Aviation, Math Works and Raytheon Missiles. Moreover, Students from top universities worldwide compete in this competition annually with a goal of making a name for themselves in the industry.

This year the theme of the competition was to design and build a Radio-controlled aircraft which comprises of an innovative banner towing mechanism. This meant the banner had to be stowed externally to the aircraft and had to be released mid-air which was extremely challenging.

After carefully understanding the needs of the competition, we formed a team of 7 members. The team comprised of students from various academic backgrounds and with a blend of seniors and juniors. The registered team name was “EAU Aviators”.

In order to enter the design phase of the competition, an initial proposal had to be made and submitted. This comprised of our initial design concept, payload and team structure. After several weeks of hard work our proposal got accepted out of 150 top worldwide universities, and we began the real journey.

Design Phase

The design phase of the competition began in November 2019, we were given 5 months to submit a comprehensive Aircraft design report and were invited for a Fly-off competition in Wichita, Kansas, USA.

This was very exciting for all of us as we started to plan and organize the tasks ahead. The team members were categorized in three groups according to their skills, these were CAD Design & Simulation, Aerodynamics & Stability and Propulsion & Controls. Moreover, the team worked at a dynamic pace with the help of weekly meetings, discussions and suggestions from university professors.

Some of the most challenging tasks in the competition comprised of designing an innovative banner towing mechanism, estimating the weight of payload, construction of the aircraft and performing successful flight tests in turbulent weather.

The aircraft was constructed using Balsa wood and Plywood. However, in high stress areas such as the wing, fuselage attachment, Carbon fiber material was used as a reinforcement. The final aircraft can be seen below.

The competition comprised of three rounds of flight:

1. Flight test without any payload & banner attached.

2. Flight test with payload & banner attached.

3. Flight test without payload and banner released mid-flight.

Project Ceremony

After 7 months of passion, hard work and results, our university gave us a chance to display our project in front of the Dean, Emirates Staff and other aviation companies. Here is a glimpse of our competition ceremony at Emirates Aviation University in January 2020.

Results

The COVID pandemic disrupted the fly-off competition which was set to be held in USA. Hence, the AIAA committee decided to announce the results based on each team’s design report score and virtual fly-off videos.

The “EAU Aviators” achieved 37th rank out of the best universities in the world, with a design report score of 80/100. This was a massive achievement for a team competing in an international competition for the first time and it inspired many other students to take part in such competitions in the future.