Maiden Flights – Successful End of the Aerospace Design Project

In the Aerospace Design Project, students have the opportunity to design, build and fly their own small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The project covers the whole range of a typical aerospace design process from preliminary design to detailed design, construction and finally testing. This year seven students participated forming groups of three and four, respectively.

Flight tests

In the last week of the semester and after successful integration tests in the Chair’s large wind tunnel, the two groups had the chance to demonstrate their UAV in an actual flight test. During the flight test, the groups were supported by the team of the Design Project and the test pilot Martin Guist. The TransMilenio was the first UAV to take off to its maiden flight which prematurely ended due to an unexpected strong gust. Afterwards, the Aethon took off and landed smoothly after a few minutes. In a second flight, the design was pushed to its limit leading to a structural failure and loss of the UAV. This marked the end of a nevertheless successful and exiting day including numerous lessons learned. We would like to thank all participants for their tremendous efforts and engagement. Special thanks also go to our test pilot.