GLIDER DESIGN, BUILD, FLY COMPETITION

The objective of the glider design, build, fly competition was to design a unmanned glider, weighing less than 500 grams, to glide as far as possible with only 3 test flights attempts.

For this project I was the Fluids Engineer and Manufacturing Engineer. I was responsible for developing Fluid models to estimate drag forces on the glider and the manufaturing process, documentation, and tooling required to manufacture the glider according to design specifications.

An estimation of the drag forces generated by the fuselage of the glider were needed to refine the design of the glider. I created a Computation Fluid Dynamics model of the fuselage of the glider to obtain this value and input it into our flight simulation to achieve more realistic results. Siemens Star-CCM+ CFD software was used for the simulation.

Carbor fiber composites were used to achieve the high strength and low weight requirements for the vehicle. 

Carbon fiber rods were purchased online and then flat carbon fiber plates were manufactured in house using Torray TC350 prepreg carbon fiber. The ribs were then cut from the cured carbon fiber plates using a CNC Router. 

Then it was all bonded together and covered in monocoat coating to provide the skin for the aircraft.

The Team achieved the furthest glide of any unpowered glider in the class resulting in a First Place finish in the competition.