The aircraft took to the skies in Van Nuys, California this weekend.
Senior mechanical engineers Keri Sharp, Ethan Smith, Kellen Moreland, Blake Emerson-Price, Jessica Dunway, Ramona Naghi and Vincent Nwagwu Ume-Ezeoke designed and worked hard to complete their senior mechanical engineering project. They are traveling alongside Julia Lorenz, Tim Rutledge and Kaidon Mauricio, who are lending a helping hand. Given mostly free reign, the students decided to build a plane, known as “Los Cielos,” that could enter an aerospace Society of Automotive Engineers competition in California.
Since September, this group has worked intensively to ensure they had a finished product for their competition from Friday, April 12 to Sunday, April 14. Building proved tough as there were multiple components to consider, with each group member given a specific part of the plane to work on. Planning and creating the behind-the-scenes aspects took the engineers until January. March was their first presentation deadline, and they had to have a version of the plane built to show their classmates the progress they made.
Dunway stated, “We all put in a lot of hours and hard work to put this plane together.”
The preparation was grueling as the team had to crash the plane five times to ensure they could make improvements on the pieces that broke. Tediously repairing the plane after each failure and needing to reassemble it to and from the practice course was laboring. The group of engineers also had to disassemble and reassemble the plane once they arrived at the competition and to transport the pieces around California.
Nwagwu Ume-Ezeoke stated, “The preparation process took over one thousand hours, five planes, and hundreds of new ideas. We have made lifelong friends throughout this project!”
The international competition, SAE Aero Design West, brings college students from across the world together to showcase their aircraft under strict conditions. The West competition is in Van Nuys, California, and their sister competition is the East version, held in Lakeland, Florida. Teams have the option of either location.
Attending this competition bodes well for future employees to evidence the immense workload put into their planes. SAE Aero Design Series describes the competition as intended to challenge engineers in a real-life situation, going against other highly competitive teams. Furthermore, SAE Aero guidelines require students to make compromises to ensure their aircraft meets the requirements while also conforming to the configuration limitations. Abiding by these rules requires incredible commitment and resilience from the group, including constantly communicating ideas and changing building methods. Emotions ran high throughout the building process as the group devoted themselves to finishing on time.
Competing under the Regular class section, the group was required to make their plane from scratch. Other sections of the competition included the Micro and the Advanced classes. The maximum weight the plane could be is 55 pounds and more points could be received if the plane weighed less. However, the group’s plane held extra weight plates, still competing at the 55-pound limit. The maximum wingspan is 180 inches, and the team reached 179.5 inches to stabilize the plane’s weight while in flight. Another specific design restriction is that the plane needs to be modular so it can easily be broken down into 48-inch sections. The planes are limited to using a 750-watt battery to power the whole plane. Planes must fly one lap of the circuit at Apollo XI RC Field. Planes also need to take off within 100 yards of the circuit, and to ensure success, “Los Cielo’s” has a professional pilot flying it via remote control. Pilot Steven Roy will ensure the plane flies around the circuit and lands triumphantly.
