A team of students from will fly a student-designed and -built 8.3-pound airplane 100 feet into the air and drop a small sandbag onto a target as part of the Society of Automotive Engineers’ annual Aero Design West Competition.
The Aero Design West Competition will be held Friday, March 28, through Sunday, March 30, at the Fort Worth Thunderbirds Flying Field in Fort Worth, Texas. S&T’s Advanced Aero Vehicle Group will compete with more than 50 collegiate teams from around the world.
There are four main components to this year’s competition. Students must present a technical design to SAE and Lockheed Martin for review and pass a technical inspection of their aircraft on Friday, March 28. The team will fly its plane once on Saturday, March 29, and again on Sunday, March 30.
The team’s flight objective is to use its plane to carry a 3-pound “simulated humanitarian aid package,” a sandbag, which must be dropped on a fixed target on the ground. Scoring for this event is based on the sandbag’s proximity to the target.
Reviewed 2014-03-19