Samueli School of Engineering

Background: The proposed aircraft was designed for the 2018 AIAA Design/Build/Fly (DBF) competition. DBF is an annual competition sponsored by Textron Aviation and Raytheon that challenges students to design, manufacture and optimize an aircraft to meet competition requirements. The aircraft is required to take-off within 150 feet, fly three competition laps (3000 ft. per lap) within 5 minutes, and demonstrate modularity of sub-assemblies. By analyzing the competition scoring equations, our team determined the highest scoring design would prioritize a minimal wingspan and low airframe weight. Initial designs revealed that conventional aircraft did not perform reliably at low wingspans, forcing our team to develop an unconventional design. The final design consists of a flat plate wing with a 7.5-inch wingspan and an empty airframe weight of 0.9 pounds. A flat plate was chosen for the wing because it is efficient at low wingspans and lighter than an airfoil wing. The aircraft demonstrates consistent flight handling characteristics and completes all mission requirements.

Faculty Advisors: Professor Robert H. Liebeck; Advisors: Colin Sledge, Joseph Hsieh, Paul Parcel, John Chen.

Contact DBF Team• Ryan Luu rnluu@uci.edu• Ryan Razo rrazo@uci.edu• Kevin Sadeghian ksadeghi@uci.edu

Email: dbfuci2017@gmail.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/dbfuci/For more information, visit: www.aiaadbf.org/