Adelaide University Aerospace Club - The University of Adelaide AIAA Student Branch

2003 UAV Project

National Aerospace Design, Build and Fly Competition 2003

For the Centennial of Powered Flight in the year 2003, the University of Sydney AIAA Student Branch organised and hosted the inaugural Australian National Aerospace Design, Build and Fly Competition. An invitation was extended to Australian universities to enter.

The premise of the competition was to design a blended wing/body unmanned cargo vehicle to carry an emergency package to the stranded crew of an Antarctic expedition. Teams built radio controlled aircraft with the aim of achieving the highest wing loading and best payload weight-to-takeoff weight ratio.

The University of Adelaide AIAA Student Branch designed and constructed a delta wing aircraft which was constructed from foam sections created using a hot wire cutter. A plywood chassis housed the motor, fuel tank and payload bay, and the whole aircraft was fibre-glassed.

Foam delta wing after joining, showing ply structure and payload bay.

The finished aircraft, DUCK.

DUCK Design Specifications

Wingspan     1.3 m
Length      0.705 m
Aspect ratio (actual)    4.7
Aspect ratio (competition calculation)   3.0
Area (actual)     0.3695 m2
Area (competition calculation)   0.5742 m2
Weight (empty)     2.9 kg
Weight (loaded)     5.0 kg
Take-off distance    ~ 50 m

The Competition

A fly-off and associated presentations were held in the September break at University of Sydney, Marulan Field, NSW. Due to the distance of the event from Adelaide (almost 1300 km) and the limited budget, only five of the final nine team members undertook the journey to the competition.

Originally 8 teams had entered the competition, from 5 universities around the country. However, by the start of the competition these figures had been revised down to 4 teams, with one university not participating due to testing failures in their aircraft. Universities represented were Adelaide, the University of Sydney, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and Australian Defence Force Academy (RAAF aerospace engineering students).

Competition entries. L – R: University of Adelaide, University of Sydney (red), Australian Defence Force Academy (black), RMIT

Judging was carried out by event organisers and teams were judged on their presentations, posters, T-shirt designs, as well as their aircrafts’ appearance, build quality, and design innovation. Adelaide was awarded best T-shirt design.

The University of Adelaide competition participants with DUCK. L - R: Rogan Shimmin, Tristan Williams, Matthew Cranwell (Team Leader), Stewart Jones, Justin Hardi

The fly-off consisted of two flights per team, one without the 2 Kg payload and one with the payload. Duck’s first flight with no payload was successful, however it crashed shortly after take-off on the payload flight. Strong cross wind and insufficient airspeed combined with an excessively high rate of climb took its toll, leading to stall on the left wing, and resulting in a slow descent to the left that the pilot could not correct. This resulted in heavy contact with the ground, and the break-up of the aircraft (with loud cries from the crowd).

Figure 10. The wreckage of DUCK at Marulan Airfield, NSW.

Despite Duck meeting a spectacular end before completing the fly-off requirements, the team came away from the competition with a sense of satisfaction – they had lifted the payload aloft with the highest wing loading of all the entries. University of Adelaide was awarded 3^rd place in the overall competition, with Sydney taking first place honours.

Sponsors

The AIAA Student Branch extends its sincere thanks to the sponsors who made our participation in this competition possible:

AIAA Evolution of Flight Campaign

JR Radio

Model Flight

Holdfast Model Aero Club

Thunder Tiger engines

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