The SkyHawks Brochure Released for 2012 SAE Aero Design

Building on the strength of their 12th ranking internationally, The SkyHawks are gearing up for the next edition of the competition, this time held at Van Nuys, Los Angeles CA from March 16 to 18th, 2012. To better inform those following the team online as well parties interested in supporting and sponsoring them, a new edition of the InfoBrochure has been released. All information regarding the team, the university it is representing, it's past experience, photographs, plan, budget etc have been compiled into a 14 page booklet.

The original team of 6 (including Mukul Tandon, now an alumnus of UPES), has now 10 members working on the varied tasks demanded of the team in the competition. Retrospection and post competition review and analysis was completed in July this year, while a short list of structural designs was was arrived at in September. The team is working on optimizing their conceptual design for structural reliability and performance.

The PDF version of the brochure can be downloaded [here]. Those requiring a printed copy of the same may contact the captain Sagar Shah by dropping a mail on theskyhawks@gmail.com or post a comment below this article.

The 2011 Experience

The 2011 SkyHawks team

The SkyHawks represented the university at SAE Aero Design West 2011, held at Ft. Worth TX, USA. The team was the first from the state of Uttarakhand to take part in this prestigious event. Last year's edition of the competition was organized by SAE with the assistance of Lockheed Martin Corporation and Gulfstream Aerospace. The team comprised of six members, namely Mukul Tandon (captain), Pranav Nagpal, Adithya Kothandhapani, Sagar Shah, Sreetej Lakkam and Udit Shah, all students of B. Tech Aerospace Engineering. Mr. Vijay Kumar Patidar (Asst. Professor) was the team's faculty advisor.


The team took part in the REGULAR class of competition which has  the following problem statement (in brief):

"Design and fabricate a remote-controlled aircraft that is powered by an OS 61FX engine, weighs less that 55 lb (inclusive of payload & fuel) and has sum of dimensions, i.e. L+B+H < 225 inches. The aircraft should not consist of composite materials and lead in any structural member."

The team was partially sponsored by the university and it's patron organizations, namely Dassault Systemes (who sponsored the SolidWorks software) and Mr. Vikram Golecha (of Associated Soapstone Distributing Company Private Limited).

The performance in retrospect:

The team's aircraft christened 'The SkyHawk' was a tandem winged UAV, powered by the competition specified OS 61FX 2-stroke piston engine. The design and fabrication efforts expended on the aircraft were one-of-a-kind as the configuration posed a variety of challenges that an aircraft designer normally doesn't encounter. For the unique design and manufacturing process followed, the team was ranked 1st among Asian teams and 5th internationally.

A turn-around repair in progress

Of the 9 rounds that eventually took place on March 19 and 20, the SkyHawk flew successfully in four rounds, thus achieving an operational availability of 44.44%. During the course of the two days, the team's aircraft lifted a payload of 15.96 lb, which along with the aircraft (empty) weight comes up to nearly 24 lb (~11 kg). For this, the team stood 3rd among all Asian teams and 12th internationally.

The clinching high point of the team's participation though, was that the aircraft had the least sum of dimensions among all other competing aircraft in the same class, while still lifting a competitive payload on it's debut entry into the SAE Aero Design competition. The team can only move ahead with this foundation and the gained experience.

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2011 SAE ADW: A Look Back

The SkyHawks represented University of Petroleum & Energy Studies (UPES) at the annual aerospace design competition “SAE Aero Design West” held from March 18^th to 20^th, 2011 at Fort Worth, Texas in USA. The team is the first from the state of Uttarakhand to take part in this prestigious event. ‘The SkyHawks’ were placed third in Asia overall. The competition, which has been held since 1995 at the Thunderbird Flying Field in Fort Worth, requires teams from engineering schools to design and fabricate an aircraft that conforms to the competition’s specifications. The competition is basically split into three classes, namely: Regular, Micro and Advanced; each having their own subset of rules, though the main objective is to lift maximum payload.

The competition is basically conducted by Lockheed Martin, a major American aerospace company for the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) which has nearly 140 collegiate clubs in India to expose engineering students to the demands of the industry through compromise, group work and meeting deadlines.

The team was sponsored 2.5 lakh rupees for fabricating the aircraft by their university, while design software was sponsored by Dassault Systemés. Travel and other expenses were borne by the students themselves, who started work on the aircraft in November 2010.

The team’s aircraft christened ‘The SkyHawk’ – having a tandem wing configuration secured the team the 12^th rank amongst 34 teams in Regular Class and amongst 54 teams overall (including Micro and Advanced Classes) from all over the world. The team was required to submit a Design Report on February 3^rd, 2011 which outlined their design, describing how they arrived at the final configuration, for which they stood 11^th internationally and was recognized as the best design from Asia. The six students left for Texas on March 15^th, immediately after their mid-semester exams and returned on the 24^th.

The team’s aircraft was given a special mention for lifting payload of 8.3 kilograms, which was more than double its own weight. The students also submitted a NASA Systems Engineering Report which explained the engineering practices employed during the design and fabrication of the aircraft. Some of the other teams included NIT (Jamshedpur), PESIT (Bangalore) and VJTI (Mumbai) from India, Texas A&M, University of Tulsa and Northern Arizona University from USA. Teams from other countries included the Polish Air Force Academy, University of Toronto and Interamerican Institute-Puerto Rico Bayamon. The winners of the regular class were LeTourneau University from the United States.