2003 Rules and Vehicle Design
Updated 31 July 2002
Note: Rules are “Draft” until 31 October 2002

Summary:

The AIAA through the Applied Aerodynamics, Aircraft Design, Design Engineering and Flight Test Technical Committees and the AIAA Foundation invites all university students to participate in the Cessna/ONR Student Design/Build/Fly Competition. The contest will provide a real-world aircraft design experience for engineering students by giving them the opportunity to validate their analytic studies.

Student teams will design, fabricate, and demonstrate the flight capabilities of an unmanned, electric powered, radio controlled aircraft that can best meet the specified mission profile. The goal is a balanced design possessing good demonstrated flight handling qualities and practical and affordable manufacturing requirements while providing a high vehicle performance.

To encourage innovation and maintain a fresh design challenge for each new year, the design requirements and performance objectives will be updated for each new contest year. The changes will provide new design requirements and opportunities, while allowing for application of technology developed by the teams from prior years.

Cash prizes are $2500 for 1st, $1500 for 2nd and $1000 for 3rd place. The winning teams will be invited to present their designs at the AIAA's Aircraft Technology, Integration, and Operations (ATIO) 2003 Technical Forum.

Judging:

Students must design, document, fabricate, and demonstrate the aircraft they determine as best capable of achieving the highest score on the specified mission profile(s). Flight scores will be based on the demonstrated mission performance obtained during the contest.

Each team must also submit a written Design Report. A maximum of 100 points will be awarded for the team design report. Scores for the written reports will be announced at the beginning of the fly-off.

Each aircraft will have computed a Rated Aircraft Cost, reflecting the complexity/technology of the design.

The overall team score is a combination of the Design Report, Rated Aircraft Cost and Flight scores. The team with the highest overall team score will be declared the winner.

Contest Site:

Host for the competition will be the Office of Naval Research. The fly-off will be held at Webster Field in St. Inigos Maryland.  Webster Field is a part of the NAVY Patuxent River Flight Test Center complex.

Note: Due to the contest being held on a military base it will be necessary for ALL attendees to supply security information well in advance of the contest date (we will e-mail the teams to request the information two to three months prior to the contest date).  Foreign participants are requested to obtain a passport well in advance of the contest date, as your passport number and issue date will be REQUIRED to process you for field access.  Because of the time needed to obtain and process security information late additions to the team roster will not be able to attend the fly-off.

You can check on weather historical conditions at www.weatherbase.com or www.weatherunderground.com.

Team Requirements:

All team members (except for a pre-approved designated pilot) must be full time students at an accredited University or College and student members of the AIAA. The team must be composed of both under classmen and upper classmen, with at least 1/3 of the members being under classmen (Freshman, Sophomores or Juniors). The pilot must be an AMA (Academy of Model Aeronautics) member. Teams may use a non-university member for the pilot if desired. We will also provide qualified pilots on the contest day for any teams who are unable to have their pilot attend.

Past Year Reports:

The top scoring report from the past years competition will be available for reference on the contest web site. The team with the top scoring report from this years contest will be required to submit an electronic copy of their report following the competition, which will be placed on the contest web site for the next years competition.

Sponsorship:

Teams may solicit and accept sponsorship in the form of funds or materials and components from commercial organizations. All design, analysis and fabrication of the contest entry is the sole responsibility of the student team members.

Schedule:

A completed entry form (electronic) is due to the contest administrator on or before 31 October 2002.  Be sure to include the Phone and FAX number for the team advisor and at least one student contact so we may reach you in case of any last minute problems or changes.  All teams are required to provide two point-of-contact e-mail addresses with their contest application, one of which must be the teams advisor.  It is the teams responsibility to make sure the e-mail contact addresses they supply remain active during the entire period from entry to the close of the competition, as e-mail will be the primary means to provide information and updates.

Written reports (5 hard copies, electronic reports can not be accepted from foreign entrants this year), are due to the contest administrator by COB 11 March 2003. COB is taken as 5 pm local time at the address provided for delivery of the written reports.  Scores for the written reports will be announced at the beginning of the fly-off.

The contest is scheduled for 25-27 April 2003.  The competition will run from noon to 6PM on Friday, and 8AM to 6PM on Saturday and Sunday. Final awards will be presented at the end of Sunday's competition. All teams are encouraged to stay and attend the awards presentations on Sunday.

Please note that tech inspections will be available on Friday 25 April. Teams are encouraged to be prepared to have your plane inspected on Friday. Inspections will also be available on Saturday, but waiting until Saturday to go through tech may mean that your team will miss one or more rounds through the flight queue. If we have a full turnout you may not be able to get in a full set of scoring flights unless you are "ready to fly" at every opportunity.

Late entries will NOT be accepted.  Late or incomplete report submissions will NOT be judged. Teams who do not submit the required written reports will not be allowed to fly.  It is the teams responsibility to assure that all deadlines are met, as they will be strictly enforced.

Communications:

The contest administration will maintain a World Wide Web site containing the latest information regarding the contest schedules, rules, and participating teams. The contest web site will also contain a list of potential suppliers for materials and equipment available to build an entry. The contest web site is located at:

http://www.aae.uiuc.edu/aiaadbf

Questions regarding the contest, schedules, or rules interpretation may be sent to the contest administrator by e-mail at:

gregory.s.page@nrl.navy.mil

The contest administrator will provide e-mail copies of questions received and their answers to all teams of record.

Written reports (only) should be sent to the chief of scoring at:

AIAA Design/Build/Fly Contest: Report Judging
Greg Page Bldg 210
ITT / AES
2560 Huntington Ave.
Alexandria, VA 22303
202-404-1251
202-767-6194 FAX

Aircraft Requirements - General

Aircraft Requirements - Safety

All vehicles will undergo a safety inspection by a designated contest safety inspector prior to being allowed to make any competition or non-competition (i.e. practice) flight. All decisions of the safety inspector are final. Safety inspections will include the following as a minimum.

      1. Verify all components adequately secured to vehicle. Verify all fasteners tight and have either safety wire, locktite (fluid) or nylock nuts.
      2. Verify propeller structural and attachment integrity.
      3. Visual inspection of all electronic wiring to assure adequate wire gauges and connectors in use. Teams must notify inspector of expected maximum current draw for the propulsion system.
      4. Radio range check, motor off and motor on.
      5. Verify all controls move in the proper sense.
      6. Check general integrity of the payload system.

Throttle closed
Full up elevator
Full right rudder
Full right (or left) aileron
Full Flaps down (if so equipped)

During Fail Safe the payload release system must NOT activate.

The radio Fail Safe provisions will be strictly enforced.

Mission Profile:

Teams must complete the flight missions as outlined in the mission matrix below.  Teams will have a maximum of 5 flight attempts. A flight attempt is defined as advancing the throttle for take-off. The best Single Flight Score from each of 2 different mission types will be summed for the team's Total Flight Score.

In the event that, due to time or facility limitations, it is not possible to allow all teams to have the maximum number of flight attempts, the contest committee reserves the right to ration and/or schedule flights. The exact determination of how to ration flights will be made on the contest day based on the number of entries, weather, and field conditions.

Each team's overall score will be computed from their Written Report Score, Total Flight Score, and the Rated Aircraft Cost using the formula:

SCORE = Written Report Score * Total Flight Score
Rated Aircraft Cost

Mission Task Matrix

Mission

Description

 

General Mission Information

·       Aircraft must fit in a 2 foot wide by 1 foot high by 4 foot long (interior dimensions) box.  Note: The aircraft does not need to “fold” to fit in the box, but may employ “plug-in” joints for rapid assembly/disassembly.  All electrical connections should be keyed so they can not be misassembled.  Tape may be used as a non-structural “latch” to hold components in place, such as taping a wing joint when using a plug-in spar arrangement to keep the wing from sliding loose.

·       Teams must select one of the following missions for each flight.  You may select a different mission for each of your scoring flight attempts.

·       To commemorate the 1903 Wright Brothers flight distance, take-off must be within 120 ft (wheels off runway)

·       On landing the aircraft must land on the runway (but may roll off) to obtain a score for that flight.

·       All payloads must be adequately secured using mechanical means.  Tape and Velcro are not acceptable forms of restraint.

·       Maximum mission time is 10 minutes.

-

Timed Assembly Task

·       This mission must be completed at least once prior to making a scoring “flight” to establish the teams assembly time score.  The “Assembly Time” will be added to the actual “Flight Time” to obtain a “Total Mission Time”.

·       The timed assembly task need not be repeated for each new flight attempt, but will “carry over” to all flights.  Teams may repeat the assembly phase to try to obtain an improved assembly time as often as the queue permits.  The new assembly time will be applied only to flights made following that assembly time task.

·       For the Timed Assembly Task, the aircraft must be removed from the box and assembled to flight ready condition by the ground crew.  Maximum ground crew is three (3) people, all must be students (no advisors or outside assistance).  Payload and batteries will not be installed during the Timed Assembly Task.  Propulsion batteries will not be connected during the assembly task for safety (the safety fuse should be removed, and additionally battery leads may be left un-connected.

·       At the end of the Timed Assembly Task the aircraft will be inspected to verify “flight-ready” status by repetition of the wing tip lift test along with a control system function and orientation test.

·       There will be a 3 minute time penalty added to the assembly time for each incorrect control surface operation.

·       Aircraft failing the wing tip lift test will receive no assembly time score, and must repair and repeat this task.

A

Missile Decoy – Difficulty Factor 2.0

·       Aircraft must take-off, complete 4 laps, and land.

·       Payload for this mission is a simulated avionics package.  The payload is a box 6 inches wide by 6 inches tall by 12 inches long and must be ballasted about it’s planform centroid to weigh at least 5 lbs.  Payload weight will be verified on the judges scale during technical inspection.

·       The aircraft must have a simulated cylindrical antenna, a section of (unmodified) “6-inch” Schedule 40 (white) PVC pipe three inches tall, with the top and bottom sealed flush with flat 1/16” Plywood sheets.  The antenna must be completely exposed on the exterior of the aircraft and stand-off from the nearest airframe structure by a minimum of 3 inches.  The antenna (cylinder) may not be faired in any manner.

·       On all laps flown the aircraft must complete a 360o turn in the direction opposite of the base and final turns on the downwind leg of each lap.

B

Sensor Deployment – Difficulty Factor 1.5

·       Aircraft must take-off, complete 2 laps, and land.  When on the runway and stopped the aircraft will self-deploy the simulated sensor package.  The aircraft will then take-off and complete 2 additional laps and land.  The ground crew may not reposition the aircraft except to move it from off of the runway (if it runs off) to the nearest runway edge.

·       Payload for this mission is a simulated sensor package.  The payload is a box 6 inches wide by 6 inches tall by 12 inches long and must be ballasted about it’s planform centroid to weigh at least 5 lbs.  Payload weight will be verified on the judges scale during technical inspection.

·       On all laps flown the aircraft must complete a 360o turn in the direction opposite of the base and final turns on the downwind leg of each lap.

C

Communications Repeater – Difficulty Factor 1.0

·       Aircraft must take-off, complete 4 laps, and land.

·       Payload for this mission is a simulated communications relay device.  The payload is a box measuring 6 inches wide by 6 inches tall by 12 inches long and must be ballasted about it’s planform centroid to weigh at least 5 lbs.  Payload weight will be verified on the judges scale during technical inspection.

·       On all laps flown the aircraft must complete THREE (3), 360o turns in the direction opposite of the base and final turns on the downwind leg of each lap.

Single Flight Score is:
Difficulty Factor
Mission Flight Time + Aircraft Assembly Time

"Mission Flight Time" is the time from when the official calls "go" until the aircraft comes to a complete stop past the starting line at the completion of all laps.

For aircraft not completing the full number of laps specified for a mission, a penalty of 3 minutes will be added to the aircraft's measured "Total Mission Time" for each lap not completed.

For example, if an aircraft completes only 3 laps of a 4 lap mission in 5 total minutes, the "Total Mission Time" would be: 5 actual minutes + 1 incomplete laps @ 3 minutes each = 8 Minutes.

Aircraft Cost Model

Rated Aircraft Cost, $ (Thousands) = (A*MEW + B*REP + C*MFHR)/1000

Coef.

Description

Value

A

Manufacturers Empty Weight Multiplier

$100

B

Rated Engine Power Multiplier

$1500

C

Manufacturing Cost Multiplier

$20 / hour

MEW

Manufacturers Empty Weight

Actual airframe weight, lb., with all flight and propulsion batteries but without any payload.

REP

Rated Engine Power

(1+.25*(# engines-1)) * Total Battery Weight

"Total Battery Weight" will be the weight of the propulsion battery pack(s) as determined by the judges scale during technical inspection. Total propulsion battery pack weight may not exceed 5 lbs., but may be lighter.

MFHR

Manufacturing Man Hours

Prescribed assembly hours by WBS (Work Breakdown Structure).

MFHR = S WBS hours

WBS   1.0 Wing(s):

8 hr/ft. Wing Span

8 hr/ft Max exposed wing chord (measured at the point on the wing(s) where the chord is greatest)

3 hr/control surface

Sum values for multiple wings

WBS   2.0 Fuselage

10 hr/ft body maximum length
Note: Maximum length of the body is defined to be the longest longitudinal length possible to measure on the aircraft, no mater what physical elements it is composed of

WBS   3.0 Empenage

5 hr./Vertical Surface (Any vertical surface, including winglets, struts, end plates, ventral etc) with no active control

10 hr/Vertical Surface (Any vertical surface) with an active control

10 hr./Horizontal Surface. A horizontal surface is a "wing" if it is more than 25% of the span of the greatest span horizontal surface.)

A "V" tail is considered to be a Vertical surface without control (5 hr) plus a horizontal surface with controls (10 hr), for a total of 15 hrs.

WBS   4.0 Flight Systems

5 hr./servo or motor controller

WBS   5.0 Propulsion Systems

5 hr./engine
5 hr./propeller or fan

 

Rated Aircraft Cost must be supplied when the aircraft enters the technical inspection. The RAC worksheet must be signed by the team advisor. RAC may not be changed during the competition unless it is determined by the contest officials to be inaccurate or inappropriate. The contest officials reserve the right to audit and revise the RAC for omissions or errors at any time.

 

General Mission Specification and Notes:

·        Aircraft are to remain assembled while waiting in the queue.  Teams will select their mission payload and install the propulsion batteries once reaching the 3rd “On Deck” position (ie. When your aircraft is 3rd in the queue you must begin loading and installation of batteries).

·        Aircraft may not have any work performed in the starting line queue, other than as specified above at the 3rd On Deck position. Aircraft propulsion batteries may be left out of the aircraft when in line.

·        Aircraft batteries may be charged while the aircraft is in the queue IF AND ONLY IF the batteries are removed from the aircraft.

·        The aircraft propulsion system(s) must be disarmed or "safed" during any time when crew members are preparing the aircraft.

·        Maximum flight support crew is: pilot, observer, and 3 ground crew. Only the designated ground crew may conduct the timed aircraft assembly . Pilot and observer may be members of the ground crew, provided total ground crew size remains 3 people.

·        Observer and all ground crew must be students, only the pilot may be a non-student.  Teams using a non-student pilot must submit a letter of intent to use a non-student pilot at least 2 weeks prior to the fly-off.  Teams requiring a contest-supplied pilot should notify the administrator in writing at least 2 weeks prior to the fly-off.

·        The upwind turn will be made after passing the upwind pylon. The downwind turn will be made after passing the downwind pylon. Upwind and downwind pylons will be 500 feet from the starting line. Aircraft must be "straight and level" when passing the pylon before initiating the turn.

·        Aircraft must land on the paved portion of the runway. Aircraft may "run-off" the runway during roll-out.

·        After landing, aircraft may taxi back to the starting line. Alternatively, aircraft may be carried back to the starting line, however the team may not leave the pit area to retrieve the aircraft until the aircraft has come to a complete stop, and they are signaled it is "Ok" to retrieve the aircraft by the flight line judge.

·        Aircraft will be considered to have only minor damage if they can be repaired and presented as flight worthy within 30 minutes of the end of that flight period. Aircraft with only minor damage will be credited with their full Single Flight Score.

·        Aircraft which can be repaired during the competition, but not within 30 minutes of the flight period, will NOT be credited with a score for that flight period.

·        Flight altitude must be sufficient for safe terrain clearance and low enough to maintain good visual contact with the aircraft. Decisions on safe flight altitude will be at the discretion of the flight line judges and all rulings will be final.

Additional information is included in the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).

Protest Procedures

Submitting a protest against a competing team is a serious matter and will be treated as such. Teams may submit a protest to the Contest Administrator at any time during the competition. Protests must be submitted in writing and signed by the team advisor (if present at the competition) or the team captain if a faculty advisor is not present. Protests will be posted for all teams to review.

If the protest is rejected, the submitting team(s) will forfeit one of their remaining flight attempts. If all flight attempts have been used, the team(s) will forfeit their lowest Single Flight score.

Protests and the appropriate penalty (ranging from a requirement to repeat a flight for minor infractions to disqualification from the contest for deliberate attempts to misinform officials or violate the contest rules) will be decided by the Contest Administrator and the Contest Director, in consultation with other Contest Officials. The decision of the Contest Administrator and Contest Director is final.

NEW for This Year

·        Maximum stowed aircraft “box” size is defined.

·        Aircraft missions are revised.

·        Missions have different difficulty factors applied.

·        Scoring is based on the best score obtained from two different mission types.

·        Teams may select which mission they wish to use for each of their flight attempts.

·        A testing section is added to the Design Report.

Design Report:

Each team will submit a judged design report as outlined below. The submission date is contained in the schedule section of this document. Reports must be bound (simple spiral bindings are sufficient and preferred, 3-ring binders are not allowed). All information used for scoring must be in the outlined sections. Reports exceeding the total page limit will be scored as "1.0 of 100". Appendices may not be included.

All reports will be space and one half, 10 point Arial font. Tables and Figures will also be 10 point Arial font. Margins are 1" on all sides. Report pages will be 8 1/2 x 11 with the exception of the drawing package.  The drawing package may be 11 x 17 pages.  The 3-view drawing must be on one of the 11 x 17 pages.

Absolute maximum page count for the report is 60 pages, including text, tables, and figures (cover/title page and table of contents is extra). Drawing package may not comprise more than 5 of the pages of the Proposal phase report page limit.

All figures must be either half (1/2) page or full (1) page format. No exceptions.

Please note that the judges will be using this same report outline for evaluating reports. ALL items listed will be expected to be present, easy to locate and identify and well documented in the report for a maximum score.

Design Report

1.     Executive Summary: (5 points):
Provide a summary of the development of your design. This should be a narrative description highlighting the major areas in the development process for your final configuration and a broad description of the range of design alternatives investigated.

2.     Management Summary (5 points):
Describe the organization of the design team. Provide a chart of design personnel and assignment areas. Include a (single) milestone chart showing planned and actual timing of major elements of the design process, including as a minimum the conceptual design stage, preliminary design stage, detailed design stage, flight testing and report preparation periods.

3.     Conceptual Design (20 points):
Describe the key elements of the mission requirements (problem statement).  Document the alternative configuration concepts (e.g. biplane, canard, flying wing, pusher -Vs tractor, number of engines etc.) investigated during the conceptual design stage and the reason why each concept was considered. Describe and document the numerical figures of merit (FOM's) used to screen competing concepts, and the mission feature each FOM was selected to support. Rated Aircraft Cost should be one of the FOM’s  used during the screening process.  Numerical data need not be extensive at this stage, but should include as a minimum: a final ranking chart giving the quantitative value of each design for each FOM.

4.     Preliminary Design (30 points):
Document the design parameter and sizing trades investigated during the preliminary design stage, and why each was felt to be important to the mission. Describe the analysis methods used. Describe the mission model used and the predicted performance. Provide estimates of the aircraft lift, drag and stability characteristics.  Document the design optimization and trade studies conducted and their results.

5.     Detail Design (15 points for discussion items, 10 points for drawing package, 25 points total for the section):
Document component selection and systems architecture selection. Include your final competition aircraft's Rated Aircraft Cost using the contest supplied cost model.  RAC table should include all input parameter, intermediate and final computation.

Include a table giving data for the sized aircraft.  One copy of this table will be submitted along with the RAC during the tech inspection and a second must be posted by the team at their “pit” area (poster board).  The table should include;
Geometry: length, span, height, wing area, Aspect Ratio, control volumes
Performance: CL max, L/D max, maximum Rate of Climb, stall speed, maximum speed, take-off field length (two sets, empty and gross weight)
Weight Statement (airframe, propulsion system, control system, payload system, payload, empty weight, gross weight)
Systems (radio used, servos used, battery configuration used, motor used, propeller (nominal), gear ratio (if used)

The Drawing Package will be included with this section and must contain as a minimum a 3-view drawing of the design in sufficient detail to indicate aircraft size and configuration; primary structure component size and location; payload size, location and restraint method; and location of propulsion and flight control system components.

6.     Manufacturing Plan and processes (10 points):
Document the process selected for manufacture of major components and assemblies of the final design. Detail the manufacturing processes investigated, and describe the FOM's used (including but not limited to: availability, required skill levels and cost) to screen competing concepts. Describe the analytic methods (cost, skill matrix, scheduling time lines) used to select the final set of manufacturing processes. Include a manufacturing milestone chart showing scheduled event timings.

7.     Testing Plan (5 points):
Detail testing objectives, schedules, check-lists, results and any lessons learned for component and full aircraft testing, both static and dynamic (ie. in flight).

 

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