NEW RULES POSTED!

They're finally here!! The rules for the 2010/2011 DBF competition have been posted!! Stay tuned for information on next years team.

2009:

2010:

2011:

Its Been Fun, Its Been Real

We here at UK's Design Build Fly team would just like to say a few words to express our gratitude to everyone who contributed this year. Although the competition score may not reflect it, we were able to make great strides and improve tremendously. We were able to learn and apply more complicated plane building skills, and implemented a defined process for thrust component testing. We had a well designed plane, and hopefully next year's team will continue making leaps forward and take UK into the top 10!

Going forward we are scheduling flights for the missions we were not able to fly at the competition, and continuing to prepare for next year's team. For any prospective students out there that are on the fence or have questions, the team leaders from this year's team would be glad to field your questions:

Brady Doepke - Chief Engineer - e.brady.doepke@gmail.com

Michael Thamann - Aerodynamics Team Leader - matham2@uky.edu

Jesse Downard - Propulsion Team Leader - Jesse.Downard@uky.edu

Joe Renfrow - Structures Team Leader - wjrenf2@uky.edu

Once again thanks for everything especially our sponsors - for without your help we could achieve nothing, and our team members - hopefully your hard work and late nights have been as rewarding as we hope, and you too Dr. Smith.

Sincerely,

Official Score

The official scores were finally posted. Our final score for the competition was 36th overall.

There were 65 teams that showed at the competition and completed tech inspection, 46 of which had a successful scoring flight. The result was not what we had hoped but our team had made several improvements from last year, and we now know what we have to do keep improving for future teams.

Finally a scoring flight!

This morning we finally got called to fly again. This time we were prepared. The wind was calm and our plane was fast. We veered to the right during takeoff which led Brady to jam the throttle and caused a very short takeoff roll, but the plane handled it quite well. It quickly got up to speed and sped through the first turn but during the first reverse turn there was what seemed to be a stall causing a sudden dive, but Brady recovered nicely and sped through the rest of the flight. Our Final flight time was 1:28 which was one of the faster flight times for the mission.

Unfortunately that was the last opportunity we had to fly during the competition. the competition was officially ended with us 4th in line to fly . So unfortunately thats how it ended, with only one successful flight...

Competition Day 2

We returned this morning to be re-tech inspected and this time finally passed. While waiting to be re-inspected we happened to miss an opportunity to fly, so we had to wait until near the end of the day to fly. However, this didn't end as well as we'd planned either. Our motor controller got switched with one that not been programmed correctly so it prevented us from getting enough power to get off the ground. so end of day 2: still no flights.

Let The Games Begin!

Today was the first day of the competition, which consists of the tech inspection. Unfortunately it did not go as well as we'd hoped... the judges wanted us to reinforce a few parts of our plane so we had to return to the hotel to get it fixed up. We will have to return on Saturday to be re-tech inspected before we're able to fly...

Off To Wichita!

Wish us luck at the competition everybody!! We'll keep you posted about how everything's going!

Practice, Practice, Practice...

we have been continuing to make adjustments to the plane/controller to reduce twitchy-ness during flight and allow for smoother turns. You can see the difference in the plane's flights below as a result of the adjustments

This is after some of the adjustments were made...

SUCCESSFULL FLIGHT!!!!!!!!

Prototype 2 was flown successfully today at RJ Corman's airfield!!

Come join us at Pazzo's for the celebration!!!

PROTOTYPE 2 COMPLETE IN 7 DAYS!!!

With a lot of hard work and long days, the second prototype has been completed in seven days! New tools were created to ensure the wings are mounted properly to help prevent another crash, and the stability margin has been reduced to make the plane more responsive. Thanks to everyone on the team who contributed their time and effort into making this happen!

Prototype 1 First Flight Attempt

Prototype was flown for the first time today after several attempts which were thwarted due to problems with the front landing gear. Unfortunately the results were not as good as we hoped. The plane had some fundamental problems which were discovered during flight. The plane took off very steadily then climbed and started turning left. When it finally reached altitude it continued to yaw left despite the pilot applying full right aileron until it ruddered into a corkscrew dive which was un-recoverable. The flight video is below.

A post crash analysis found the wings were mounted at the incorrect angle and the plane was also overly stable. A new prototype has begun construction immediately to correct these issues.

E-Day a success, report finished, and first flight scheduled!!!

With everyone's help we were able to complete Prototype 1 in time for E-day, making for a successful event! A special thanks goes to all who lent their hands and minds to the design/manufacture of the plane as well as setting up for E-Day. We had lots of visitors throughout the day with a lot of great questions and received tons of support. It was great to see all the people stop by and wish us luck on the competition, and admire our creation. Here are some photos below from throughout the day:

Also another major milestone has been passed with the completion of the competition report. After many sleepless nights and contributions from several individuals (including Dr. Smith and Dr. Lebeau who helped provide several revisions) the report was submitted Monday March 1st with one day to spare before the deadline. All thats left now is more prototypes, and continuous flight testing!!

On that note, the first flight has been scheduled for Monday March 8 at approximately noon. The results of the first flight are being anxiously awaited, and will be posted as soon as possible!!

Thanks again for all your support!!

PROTOTYPE 1 COMPLETE!!

Its done just in time for E-Day!!! Take a look!

Thanks everyone for your hard work and support!!

Prototype 1 making big strides!

This week has been a major build week for our first prototype. With one wing complete, the tail built and ready to be mounted into the fuselage, the motor mount installed, wing spar holes cut and reinforced, and landing gear about ready to be installed we are well on our way to nearing completion. Once a few more parts arrive we can get the second wing put together and get up in the air in no time!!! We are still on schedule to have a completed, ready-to-fly prototype for E-Day here on campus this Saturday from 9am to 1pm.

I'd like to send a big thanks to all our team members as well as the underclassmen who have been helping us make this happen. We need to keep up the hard work and get this bird in the air!!

More cold days of flying

With the flight computer reading 25F with a steady 10mph wind a few brave team members headed out for our coldest flight yet. Another five flights with the ARF and duraplanes collecting more data on the flight computer were completed. Except for minor frostbite and the pilot literally realizing he can't feel his fingers while flying; the day went well.


A few days later we returned with a few more tweaks to the flight computer. While the weather was warmer (28F) the snow was thick. Despite bringing every tool we did not bring a snow shovel.

An hour with a sheet of plywood and a tiny section of runway was clear and we were off. The flight went well and important data was recorded. Eventually an electrical issue caused the plane to twitch on landing missing the small patch of cleared runway. The gear was stripped and the plane became a sled for the last 30ft. But all is well and we will be back up next week.

Spring Fly Day 1

After all the hard work over winter break, the weather finally cleared just enough for a fly day. We headed to the LMAC Field with the two new composite fuselage DuraPlanes and the Red ARF plane. The weather was a little cold, but the winds were calm.

The first two flights were with the first composite DuraPlane. The plane flew perfectly and required little trim. The aircraft was very stable and predictable on the first flight. On the second flight after shifting the CG some and increasing the throws the plane became more responsive and in no time we were doing rolls and split S maneuvers.

Next we attempted to start the second DuraPlane. But there was a servo issue we were unable to correct at the field, so we moved on to the the ARF plane. The ARF plane was fitted with a flight computer to provide real time data to the ground. The plane flew well and the computer worked. Unfortunately the monokote used to patch the pitot tube lines began to shed during some sharp turns. The aircraft continued to fly, but we choose to bring it down and not push our luck.

The forth and fifth flights were again with the duraplane with again more tweaking to the servos and different prop sizes. Also Jim Burgess (ME-Jun) was given the chance to fly some and did quite well for his first time.

Five flights, five landings, five touch and go, total flight time 35 minutes, and only one monokote patch needed is always a success.

Winter work week summary

The winter break work week was overall a success. Several issues arose with parts being ordered and building the power supply to run the motor in the tunnel but solutions were found and we have moved on.

The week started with the finalization of all aero numbers and then moving the model from XFLR5 to ProE. A few fit checks were done and the model was ready to be printed for construction.

Work first began on the fuselage. Plywood sheeting was laminated with cross sections of the fuse, then cut out and assembled on a base board. Pink foam was used to fill the gaps and then the never ending process of whittling away then sanding and painting the positive molds began. From this the negative fiberglass molds were laid. Further work needs to be done to create the support mold for the negative mold, since scaling up the previous plaster method proved not to work.

In parallel work was being done on the wings, thanks to Jim we now have a full construction model of the wings ready to be sent to the laser cutter. This model was also given to Neil who is now running ANSYS to better determine the wings strength characteristics.

The propulsion group continues to trouble shoot issues with the power, a solution has been found and we now only are waiting for parts. While waiting Aaron was able to setup the Eagle Tree flight computer on the Red ARF plane.

Aero Progress (Fall 09)

The Aero group started the semester off by first doing a study of previous years DBF aircraft. Collecting specs from every DBF aircraft we could find, trends were developed to get first level numbers on our aircraft.

From there using various book methods and XFLR5 the model was furthered developed. This eventually lead to having the basic numbers for airfoil, chord, span, and with help from the structures group a first weight estimate. With all the basics determined the only part left was the fuselage construction and aircraft layout. For this a full 3D model was developed.
Aero has also been leading the effort to design an MDO code to help optimize our design and future designs.

Propulsion Progress (Fall 09)

The Propulsion group has been busy doing a lot of research into all the options we have for motor, prop, esc, and battery combinations. To verify potential propulsion combinations they have designed and built a thrust rig for the wind tunnel to measure, thrust, rpm, and power consumption while in the tunnel.

We are also plan on using a flight telemetry system to measure air speed, ground speed, altitude and other key flight parameters in real time for flight testing.

Structures Progress (Fall 09)

The Structure Group has had the interesting position this fall of figuring out how to build the lightest, strongest, and quickly constructed, on a budget aircraft as possible.
Evaluation of previous winning aircraft showed composite fuselages to be key; especially with the high volume needs of the 10 softballs. A fiberglass-balsa composite has been found to be ideal. Since the final aircraft was not designed yet, the group elected to build replacement fuselages for the smaller duraplanes.

After the mold was made, we began laying up different fuselages.

The team uses a non-autoclave, vacuum bagging technique to layup the composites. Thanks to Northrop-Grumman for their gifts to help with our use of non-autoclave composites.