ORIGINAL: Tall Paul
Now that AIAA has been mentioned, there is a legitimate purpose. AIAA and SAE sponsor university level competitions for designing, buildling and flying airplanes to meet the criteria for the contest.
The events are quite popular in the technical universities, with competitors from all over the world coming to the US for the finals, and some nations spinning off their own series, as in Brazil.
It's as close as a student can get to the real world they'll be graduating into, with the experience of designing, building, explaining the design, and proving it by flying it, instead of the usual academic method of talking the subject to death.
The AIAA site ..
http://www.ae.uiuc.edu/aiaadbf/
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the SAE site is:
http://students.sae.org/competitions/aerodesign/west/
The AIAA Fail-safe rule: o Radio fail-safe check. All aircraft radios must have a fail-safe mode that is automatically selected during loss of transmit signal. The fail-safe will be demonstrated on the ground by switching off the transmit radio. During fail safe the aircraft receiver must select:
Throttle closed
Full up elevator
Full right rudder
Full right (or left) aileron
Full Flaps down (if so equipped)
The radio Fail Safe provisions will be strictly enforced.
LOL ....... This is indeed funny and Idiotic !
I thought fail safe was made to save planes .... the new use has come just into my knowledge.
In my 25 years of aviation experience, I have not seen anything measuring 1' by 2' by 4'.
Whatever the AIAA might be, it looks like they need some serious professional help.
I read the rules and guidelines, and would like to give adivce to the AIAA on about 14 things that should be corrected.
Look , I am not against the AIAA or the contest but I would like to ask , If you ask Chip to go for a plane measuring 1' by 2' by 4' will he go for it ? Never. Because he is a serious aviator nad has no time for this nor does nay serious avitator has.
I would like to say that I encourage all contests but we should be utilizing our energy, time and money for a positive and practical outcome.
If you see the NASA contest , its about making an aircraft that can carry people to space, making a space liner like an air liner, now thats something to go for.