Off to the Races!

The results are in… Miner Aviation is going to competition! Not only that, but we tied for 5th out of 141 proposals!

We haven’t just been sitting around waiting for results, though. MAV has been hard at work testing and optimizing designs to fit this year’s competition demands. At one point the Aerodynamics Subteam tested over 100 configurations in one meeting!

Meanwhile, Design and Manufacturing tried to do some prototypes…

…to varying degrees of success.

However, we did settle on a design… and it is double trouble. That’s right, we settled on a bi-plane! Bi-planes are tricky because back in the 1930s, everyone decided that all planes should have one wing, which means there isn’t much literature on them. Given the 5-foot wingspan constraint of the competition, we decided that two is better than one. Here’s our conceptual design for our aircraft!

However, the restraints on the plane design are only a part of this year’s challenges. We also have a banner to contend with… and we’re thinking big.

Like, really big.

Modeling the drag on this guy isn’t easy, trust me.

Winter break is coming, so watch out on social media for manufacturing updates! With our plan to build two planes this year, you can expect to see us in the design center all winter long.

Our crowdfunding campaign is coming up at the beginning of the spring semester, so be ready!

A special thank you to those who have given personal donations we have already received, including CDR Gary Henderson and LCDR Peggy Henderson. Your support means the world to us.

Thank you to the organizations who have already supported us: Academy of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineers, Student Activity Funding Board, Telemetry Learning Center, Missouri Space Grant Consortium, the Student Design and Experiential Learning Center, and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Academy. You can expect to see your logo both on our plane and our website soon.