Wichita, we are on the way!
Like our predecessors, we had to wait until this particular day to get the official acceptance for this year’s DBF-competition. But what is it all about?
We are especially proud to be able to announce that we are one of 113 teams which got the approval for the AIAA Design-Build-Fly Competition in Wichita, Kansas. But our journey already started with building the team in the mid of July 2019. Once the rules were published in September, we were able to divide the team into subteams to achieve the best distribution of specialists. This season the task is to design a “Banner Towing Bush Plane” which has never been demanded before and challenges us in a new way.
The competition consists of the following 4 Missions:
Mission 1: Test Flight
The aircraft must take-off , complete 3 laps in 5 minutes and successfully land.
One Point for achievement will be attributed.
Mission 2: Charter Flight
One or more passengers with additional luggage each (total weight per person and luggage 5 ounces / 141,7 grams) must be flown around the course with a minimum of 3 laps in a time span of 5 minutes.
The best ratio of passengers to flight time compared to all other teams will achieve the highest score ranging from 1 to 2 points.
Mission 3: Deployable Banner
A Banner must be mounted on the airplane and deployed during flight. The banner must have an aspect ratio of 5 to 1. Additionally, the takeoff length is limited to 20 feet (6,1 Meter) and the flight time to 10 minutes.
For scoring the banner length will be multiplied by the number of laps and divided by the best team’s ratio of length to laps. Achievable points are ranging from 2 to 3.
Ground Mission
The aircraft is positioned in a 10- by 10-foot box (3,05 x 3,05 meter) and must be loaded and unloaded with the maximum submitted passengers plus luggage. Only one person is allowed to touch the aircraft.
The fastest time is divided by the respective time.
The overall score will be multiplied with the points achieved in the proposal which is set up to 100 points.