Rzeszów/Three medals for Rzeszów University of Technology students at aviation competition in the US

The event took place in Lakeland, Florida. Rzeszów University of Technology was represented by members of the largest research club at the university - EUROAVIA Rzeszów, operating at the Avionics and Control Department of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics.

The competition was divided into three categories: Micro class, Regular class and Advanced class; the team from Rzeszów University of Technology took part in the first two and won places on the podium in both. With only 5 members, it was the smallest team in the competition. 75 teams competed, 62 of them in Micro and Regular class.

Aviation and cosmonautics student Mateusz Rakieć from EUROAVIA Rzeszów explained that in the Micro class the most important criterion was building an airplane that would fit into a 30 x 35 x 8 cm box and lift the highest payload fraction possible. In this category, the Rzeszów University of Technology students won the second place and silver medal for the lifted payload. The winners were the team from Venezuela.

"In the Micro class, in which we debuted this year, we lifted more than three times the weight of our plane. The weight of our ready-to-fly, unloaded aircraft was only 287 grams. This gave us the second place for the best lifting capabilities" - said Rakieć.

He added that their plane that competed in the Micro class was made of innovative carbon fibre.

The task in the Regular class was to build an airplane capable of carrying as many passengers as possible, in this case replaced by tennis balls, along with additional payload, luggage. Competing teams had to take into account the engine power limit of 1,000 watts, the length of the runway - 60 meters and the wingspan, which could not exceed 3.6 meters.

Rak emphasised that a very important element was performing as many trouble-free flights as possible, and each flight was scored separately. EUROAVIA completed 7 flights. It was the highest number in the history of the competition; teams usually perform 5 flights.

In this category, EUROAVIA won two third places and two bronze medals: one for the lifted payload, another in the overall classification, in which, in addition to the lifted payload, the judges also evaluated technical presentations and aircraft documentation.

In order to better prepare for the competition, the team carried out test flights at the auxiliary airfield and prepared their airplanes for the local conditions.

"Before the event, technical documentation of both aircrafts was checked in terms of compliance with the rules of the competition. We then delivered oral presentations to Lockheed Martin specialists. The jury liked our models, as did the judges who conducted the inspection, and our competitors. We were praised for our solutions and performance accuracy" - said the student.

The Science Club EUROAVIA Rzeszów is the largest club at Rzeszów University of Technology. Its members are over 50 aviation enthusiasts. The club is a member of an international student association active in 23 European countries. The main goals of the organization include promoting the interest in the aviation industry, development of skills acquired during studies through various technical projects, participation in scientific competitions around the world.

Success at SAE Aero Design East is yet another accomplishment of the team EUROAVIA Rzeszów, which has successfully participated in international construction competitions and completed numerous technical projects. The team participated in the drone competition IMAV 2016 in Beijing, where they competed with an autonomous multirotor of their own design; in Krakow`s Droniade, where the students created an innovative system of locating tags using three drones for a search and rescue operation; in the Air Cargo Challenge, where they took 3rd place overall and 1st place in the category of wooden models.

In 2016, EUROAVIA qualified for the first edition of the "Best of the Best" programme, which enabled the team to take part in the SAE AERODESIGN EAST 2016 and resulted in 2nd place among 68 teams from around the world in the category of technical documentation and 7th place overall.

SAE Aero Design is a series of the world`s largest competitions for aviation students, co-organized by Lockheed Martin. The US events have two editions: East and West. 75 teams representing universities from all over the world participate. This year`s participants included teams from South America, Asia, Europe, Africa and many from North America.

PAP - Science in Poland

author: Agnieszka Pipała

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