On Saturday, May 9, three aircraft design teams flew their vehicles from runway 17R at Texas A&M’s Riverside campus. These three teams participated in AERO’s two semester design-build-test-fly aircraft design sequence.
During the Fall 2008 semester, Dr. Carlson challenged the teams to provide a conceptual and preliminary design of a Uninhabited Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) capable of carrying a 2000 lb payload for a range of 800 nm at transonic speeds (Mach 0.8) and at altitude of 40,000 ft.
During the Spring 2009 semester, the instructor team of Drs. Strganac, Valasek and Boyd guided the teams through wind tunnel and scaled flight vehicle stages. Each team built and tested a wind tunnel model based on their design in the 3 x 4 ft Low Speed Wind Tunnel at H.R. Bright. The purpose of these tests was to validate conceptual design parameters with scaled models, as well as provide benchmark information for the scaled flight vehicles. Then, following wind tunnel tests, the teams built and flew flying scaled versions of their design at the Riverside campus.
The photos show the 3 teams with their aircraft. The three teams are:
1. Applied Industries, designers of the XF-77 Dark Wolf:
kneeling, L to R: Alexander Pankonien, Justin Wilkerson;
standing, L to R: Ainsley Vanrooyen, Professor Boyd, Jesse Mooney, Professor Valasek, Justin Freels, Professor Strganac (seated),
not shown - Matthew Kuester
XF-77 Dark Wolf
2. Ascension Aerospace, designers of the FQ-1 Phoenix:
L to R: Randell Labio, Leyton McElduff, Professor Boyd, Professor Strganac (seated), Michael Yager, Professor Valasek, Brad Burgess, Chase Caruth, Daniel Greisser
FQ-1 Phoenix
3. Manureva Aerospace, designers of the F-75 Loki:
back row, L to R: Adam Sexton, Professor Strganac, Tyler Rudloff, Professor Valasek, Professor Boyd, Adam Campbell,
front row, kneeling L to R: Edgar Wingo, Taylor Vaughn, Stephen Wells, Robert Keiser
F-75 Loki
The following individuals are acknowledged for their assistance: John Bowling - pilot, Cecil Rhodes - mechanic/technician, Yogesh Babbar - graduate research assistant, Arun Surendran - graduate research assistant, Shalom Johnson - graduate research assistant, and Drew Beckett - graduate research assistant.
Photo credit - Kasey Strganac.
Dr. Thomas William Strganac, P.E.
Professor of Aerospace Engineering
