KU engineering students prepare biplane for national flight contest

UPDATE MAY 9: First in flight: KU aerospace design team takes trophy in national competition

LAWRENCE -- A team of engineering students at the University of Kansas soon will see their dreams take flight.

The students, who will participate in the Society of Automotive Engineers Aero Design East competition in May, have conceptualized, designed and built from scratch a radio-controlled aircraft with a 6-foot wing span.

"Planning began at the beginning of last semester, and building didn't start until November," said Carl Johnson, team captain and an aerospace engineering senior from rural Lawrence. The team has completed one plane and taken it on trial flights with good results. The students are busy constructing a backup plane of the same design, which is allowed in the competition rules.

The plane, dubbed "Mothra," is built with a variety of materials including balsa wood, fiberglass, carbon composite tubes and Monokote, a thin plastic film that gives the wings their brilliant blue skin.

The SAE competition emphasizes the teams' preparation and presentation skills. Each team must provide a detailed report of its plane's design and construction, detailed drawings of the design, and a payload prediction chart. Students also must deliver an oral presentation about their endeavor. Teams can earn up to 100 points in this phase of the competition.

Once the teams have completed these steps, they can improve their scores by successfully flying their plane and carrying heavier payloads, as well as accurately predicting how much weight their craft can carry. Aerospace engineering senior Lance Holly of Omaha will fly the plane in competition.

This year's rule limitation of a 6-foot wing span had the KU students thinking in different directions as they designed their plane. Because the plane must not only be able to fly but also carry additional weight to score well in the competition, surface area on the wings is crucial. The KU students, most of whom are aerospace engineering students, realized that because of the wing-span requirement, they could change only the surface area of the wings to increase performance. That prompted them to conduct a trade study comparing a traditional design to a biplane for different wing areas. The best result was a biplane.

"This actually has twice the surface area of previous years' aircraft," Johnson said.

The design contest has required a lot of effort from the more than 15 KU students involved with this year's team. Often the students had to research a particular subject and apply that knowledge before they had an opportunity to learn it in a classroom setting. Team members have received some advice and guidance from Jan Roskam, Deane E. Ackers distinguished professor of aerospace engineering, who is faculty adviser for the team, and Rick Hale, assistant professor of aerospace engineering. The SAE Aero Design project is not held in conjunction with a course, as happens at some universities, so the KU students must demonstrate not only ingenuity but also motivation and self-discipline.

"The most difficult thing is scheduling and getting everyone together for meetings," said Johnson. "This doesn't count for class time. This is all extracurricular."

The students estimated they put in more than 600 volunteer hours by mid-April.

The SAE Aero Design East competition takes place May 2 through 4 in Dayton, Ohio. The travel team has yet to be finalized, although four to eight students will make the trip.

Johnson won't predict how the team will place in competition; he is, however, positive.

"I think we'll do well. We haven't flown with a lot of weight yet, but we feel confident."