Hi everyone, I wanted to give an update on the progress that the plane has made.

Since December we built 2 more prototypes.

Prototype 1:



The picture shows a side view with the hatch door open. We had 3 successful flights where we made small adjustments after each to improve performance or stability. On the forth flight, a gust along with pilot error took the plane into a tree.

Prototype 2:




The plane handled really well. We had an RC pilot who builds his own models from scratch fly it and he was impressed on how well it handled. Between this and the final plane we only added some light spars along the body to reduce drag and hope for faster flight times.

Final design:


The team left with the plane on Friday. I am awaiting to see how well we will perform. At competition, the plane has to pass tech inspection (making sure that it is safe to fly and meets all the requirements), taxi test (over the roofing panels), mission 1 (speed flight), mission 2 (payload flight), mission 3 (uneven payload flight representing medical passengers and nurses). Wish us luck!


Below is a link to the pdf of the report we submitted for anyone who wants to know specifics of the plane. It outlines everything that has been done on the plane including all the calculations, theories, construction and even what we changed after test flights. The report was submitted before the test flights of prototype 2 and we scored 83/100. I am not sure what the judges took points off yet but it compared very well with the top teams earning us a spot 38th out of 100 teams in the flight line.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pke7skjxy1...s%20Lowell.pdf