Read through the project overview and the milestones on this page.
Create a team of 4-5 and submit your team name and the names of the members of your team.
In a sentence describe the type of plane you are planning on. For example traditional wing/tail, canard, flying wing, biplane, foam wing, built-up wing with monokote, composite layup, etc. Note that in all milestones, you aren’t locked into any design decisions.
Submit a maximum 2-page memo describing your airfoil design process including justification for your selected airfoil backed by analysis.
Submit a maximum 2-page memo describing your wing design process including justification for your wing design backed by analysis.
Submit a maximum 2-page memo on stability analysis. Try to address issues brought up in the design review. Position and size all your tail surfaces to achieve static stability in a desirable range, and reasonable dynamic stability. Include a plot of the geometry. Report the key stability derivatives for static stability: \({C_m}_{,\alpha}, {C_n}_{,\beta}, {C_{roll}}_{, \beta}\), and static margin (which really could replace \({C_m}_{,\alpha}\)). Include the plot of eigenvalues and numeric values. Briefly discuss. Note that the propulsion system will affect some of your stability derivatives so you may want to iterate further when we add propulsion.
Have a complete aircraft design with design decisions backed by analysis. Nothing to turn in, rather will discuss it at the design review. We will split team into three groups between myself and the two TAs. Your team will have 12 minutes for the in-class review. The grade is based on providing sufficient information to understand the design but is not based on the quality of the aircraft design or on presentation quality. The purpose of the review is to have a dialogue to allow for helpful feedback and answering of questions. In other words, you don’t need to spend time making fancy slides, but you do need to present key information clearly so that we can have a meaningful discussion. At a minimum, I recommend including the following:
Submit a maximum 2-page memo describing your battery, motor, prop selection including justification for your design decisions backed by analysis. After you are satisfied with your selection (talk to us if not sure), you should buy your components.
Bring a built part to class. It can be anything: a wing you cut on the foam cutter, a 3D printed part for a wing/fuselage junction, a prototype cardboard version of the plane, a servo with control surface and linkage for practice, etc.
Have a complete aircraft (minus electronics). You won’t be penalized if you have less than a full aircraft, but if you are behind you should be ready to discuss clear plans for completion. Similar format to last time. The main focus will be on providing feedback and suggestions on your build.
Subnit a video of a glide test, and your observed lift-to-drag ratio.
Checkoff with TAs that your control surface work and you have a profile saved on the transmitter.
Report in PDF format. The cover page should contain your team name, the names of all team members, and a nice photo (or rendering) of your aircraft. Refer to the BYU ME Writing Materials for general writing guidance. Here is a past example report that scored well (note the mission and requirements were not exactly the same).
Note that in addition to the design details your report needs to include details from the fly off. These are separated into two rubrics to highlight than you could get all the design points regardless of how well your aircraft performs. Metric TBD.