2006/2007 WSU AIAA DBF Competition

The 2007 Cessna Aircraft Company/Raytheon Missile Systems Student Design/Build/Fly competition was held at the TIMPA flying field in Tucson Arizona over the weekend of 20-22 April. Thirty six teams from the United States, Israel, Scotland and Turkey attended the contest fly-off weekend. Of the 36 teams attending the fly-off competition, 18 made at least one
successful scoring flight attempt, with several teams completing all of their allowed five flight attempts during the two days of competition. The Saturday morning rain ended by the morning pilots briefing, with excellent flying weather for the rest of the weekend.

The design objective for this years competition was to create an airplane that would fit in a 2 x 4 x 1.5 foot shipping container and was scored both ground and flight tasks. The 2007 flight missions included a simulated Air Sampler System task and a simulated Surveillance System task. The two ground tasks were a minimum time for assembly and preparation of the aircraft for mission deployment, and a minimum time to reconfigure the aircraft from one mission
configuration to the other. Each ground mission had a maximum possible score of 50 points, each flight mission had a maximum possible score of 100 points. The total score for each team is comprised of their flight performance and their ground task performance, the score on a written report documenting their aircraft design and selection, and a "Rated Aircraft Cost" representing
the complexity and manufacturing costs of their design.Cash prizes are $2500 for 1st, $1500 for 2nd and $1000 for 3rd place. The winning team will be
invited to present their design at an AIAA conference hosted by the sponsoring technical committees. Continuing this year the Design Engineering Technical Committee sponsored prizes for the top ten teams presenting copies of their Aerospace Design Engineering Guide handbook. This additional support, above and beyond their participation as one of the administering Technical Committees, is greatly appreciated. The final results showed a significant scoring advantage from the extremely low RAC of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology “OBOSU” team with a final score of 279.85. Second
place was taken by the Oklahoma State University “Orange” Team at a score of 111.12. Third place was the Purdue University team “Spirit of Amelia” with 95.05 points.

More details on the 2007 competition objectives and rules can be found at the contest web site at http://www.ae.uiuc.edu/aiaadbf . The success of the competition required the efforts of many individuals. Our first thanks goes to the judges who assisted in the operation, technical inspections and scoring of the flight competition, and to the many judges who evaluated and scored the teams written reports. Thanks also go to the Applied Aerodynamics, Aircraft Design, Design Engineering, and Flight Test Technical committees of the AIAA who organized and manage the competition, and the AIAA Foundation for their administrative support. Thanks are also due to the competitions corporate supporters, the Cessna Aircraft Company and Raytheon Missile Systems. A special thanks goes to the members of the TIMPA flying field for hosting this years event and providing access to their facilities and the flying field.

Overall the 2007 Cessna/Raytheon Missile Systems Student Design/Build/Fly competition marked another very successful event, allowing the participating students to mix a highly enlightening educational experience with a good dose of fun. Congratulations to all the teams who participated for your great enthusiasm and achievement.

See you next year.
Greg Page for the DBF Governing Committee