DBF-2019

TEAM

Markus Kucera Technical Documentation

Miriam Scharf Management

Mathias Krampl Engineering

COMPETITION

This year’s fly-off is scheduled for 11-14 April 2019 at the TIMPA facility in Tucson, Arizona. The objective for the DBF 2018/19 competition is to design a multi-purpose aircraft to support carrier operations. The aircraft must feature a remote transition from a stowed configuration of 3 feet maximum width to a flight configuration with a minimum wing span of 4 feet. Furthermore, short take-off capabilities and the ability to carry payloads in the form of a rotating radome or multiple dart rockets.  
The joanneum Aeronautics Team reached the excellent 3rd rank in the 2019 competition which represents the best result for the joanneum Aeronautics so far. Learn more about the days of the Contest 2019 in Tucson, Arizona >>

Flight Missions

Like the last years, the competition will have three flight missions. The aircraft must transition to flight configuration form stowed configuration prior to each flight mission and take off from a 10 feet long ramp. 1st flight mission – Demonstration Flight: The aircraft must demonstrate its flight capabilities without any payload. 2nd flight mission – Timed Flight: The aircraft must be able to carry a rotating radome during the flight. The radome must have a minimum diameter of 12 inches and a thickness of 1 inch at the mounting point. The radome shall not rotate during take-off and landing. 3rd flight mission – Range Flight: For the last mission, the aircraft will be loaded with a selected number of dart rockets, which shall be dropped individually.  At least four darts have to be carried under the wing.

Ground Mission

There will also be a ground mission, where the different tasks of the flight missions must be demonstrated. The ground mission will be timed. The aircraft starts in the stowed configuration. First, the transition to flight configuration must be demonstrated. Then the radome must be mounted and the time will stop for the demonstration of the remote activation/deactivation of the rotation. The time will then be restarted and the radome will be removed followed by the mounting of four dart rockets. The time stops after completion. The ground mission finishes with a demonstration of the flight control and propulsion systems as well as individual release of the attack stores. The full rules can be viewed at the homepage of the AIAA.

Aircraft

Other than in the last years, the design parameters like wingspan and weight of the aircraft do not impact the overall score. This gave the joanneum Aeronautics DBF-19 team the possibility to come up with creative and inventive designs for their aircraft without having to think about the sizing and weight too much. Characteristics:
  • Name: BOBBY
  • Wing Span: 2,1 m
  • MTOW: 7,8 kg
  • Take-off Speed: 10 m/s
  • Cruise Speed: 23 m/s
  • Unfolding Time: < 5s
  • Max. Payload M3: 15 Darts

Results

SPONSORS