May 4, 2010
Placing well above schools like MIT and Georgia Tech, the two University of Texas Design-Build-Fly teams from the Aerospace Engineering Department recently showed the world what Texans already knew: Longhorns know airplanes. Batwing, the team led by senior Vishnu Jyothindran, went with a more traditional plane design and placed 4th out of 69 teams at the Kansas competition April 16-18. Texas Flight, led by senior Akber Patel, however, designed an unconventional plane that raised eyebrows at the competition - but still completed all three missions to take 11th place.
"The Texas Flight plane got the 'wow' factor from everyone on the field," said adviser Mark Maughmer, the pilot for Batwing. Sophomore Eric Terry, the weight and configuration manager for Batwing, added that many people at the contest were saying, "I want to see that fly."
The innovative Texas Flight plane, with canards and forward swept wings placed further back to allow for faster loading time, flew at a top speed of about 65 mph and completed all three missions with no crashes.
The missions included an unloaded plane's speed on a half mile loop; loading time for a payload of six to ten softballs followed by three untimed laps; and the plane's time on three laps with a payload of one to five softball bats. Of the 69 teams competing from universities around the world, about 45-50 completed at least one mission, and only 15 teams completed all three missions.
"Since we had such an unconventional design, completing all the flights was a success in itself," Patel said. "We were hoping for top ten, but we're happy." Texas Flight lost the extra couple of points for top ten in their loading time because three of the eight softballs fell to the floor during the loading and the box containing their plane was a fraction heavier than other teams' boxes.
Batwing also completed all three missions successfully, getting their points boost in their fast loading time and a well-written report score, a multiplier for the three flight mission scores. Batwing did crash once when a broken latch caused the hatch to fly open resulting in loss of control. With only a bent nose gear, however, the fix took only 30 minutes before the plane was back up in the air and flying its top speed of approximately 70 mph. Batwing also placed lower due to the weight of their box since both Texas teams interpreted the rules more conservatively than other teams, which used flimsier materials that Texas thought wouldn't qualify for the judges. "Considering we lost due to a box, it's not bad at all," Jyothindran said. "We'd have given them a run for their money if we'd used the same materials. I don't feel bad about the box." Maughmer said both teams were so successful because of their organization during all their preparations. "They had much better organization this year," he said. "If they keep up what they were doing this year, they'll place high next year too." Patel added that the teams could not even have competed without the financial help they received. "None of this would have been possible without the donation from Dick and Judy Perkins," he said. Dick (BSASE '64, MSASE '66) and Judy (BSEDU ’66) Perkins have generously supported student projects within Aerospace Engineering for a decade.
To learn more about student projects and/or to support our student teams, please contact Bliss Angerman at 512-232-7085 or bliss.angerman@austin.utexas.edu
Written by Tara Haelle
