SAE ADW 2011: Flight Round 3

This is the first flight round that was successfully videographed by the team, during Day 2 of the SAE Aero Design West 2011. The video dated March 19, 2011 is of the tandem wing aircraft designed by 'The SkyHawks' carrying 9.56 pounds in the payload bay. Pilot: Stephen Byrd from Fort Worth.

The Test Flights

The tandem wing design was tested with a lot of apprehension, though none of that was misplaced. Being an experimental design, a few ground runs were done to establish stability in take-off and effectiveness of the elevator surfaces. A day later, i.e. on February 3rd, The SkyHawks started off with the first set of flight tests, conducted by Hemant Kumar Verma, an experienced pilot from Delhi.

The two flights recorded above confirmed theoretical results of short take-off, high climb rate and reliably static stability. For the record, the SkyHawks (the plane was christened this) took off with a ground run of 30 feet when unloaded, with 30% of maximum power from  the OS 61FX 2-stroke engine.

For more information, do get in touch with the team through details given on the 'Contacts' page.

The SkyHawk Design: Engineering in Tandem

Now, after the danger of design piracy has passed, and the hectic report submission phase is done and dusted, we unveil our plane through the web! The team's motto ' Engineering in Tandem', quite literally taken means engineering done one-behind-the-other. Applied to aircrafts, the one point that may hit home is the tandem configuration, i.e. two full sized aircraft wings.

Illustrated to the left is the team's computer-generated aircraft model. Actual photographs may not be uploaded till after the competition, due to possible misuses.

The plane has undergone successful flight trials with and without payload,giving a lot of promise for a more-than-decent show at Aero Design West 2011 at Fort Worth, Texas.

Thanks go out to our university for supporting us so far.