UC engineering students win aircraft design competition

The project was started as a capstone assignment for the senior-level Aircraft Design course in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics within CEAS. The students, led by assistant professor educator Rodrigo Villalva, spent two semesters developing and designing a supersonic business jet within the set speed, range, takeoff field and passenger count requirements given to them. 

The team created a basic concept that was refined throughout the two semesters they were in the class. Starting from the ground up, the students were tasked with designing and testing all features of the aircraft. They had to ensure the main components of an aircraft were placed in such a way that would allow it to fly safely. 

"I'm proud of what our team was able to achieve," said Liam Mckenna, stability and controls lead on the project. "My favorite part of it all was being able to hop into the cockpit of the design that my teammates and I worked so hard to create." 

Throughout the design stages of this project, the students didn't know how their aircraft would perform in real-world conditions. The group spent two semesters conceptualizing and theorizing how this aircraft should perform but weren't able to really see it until the competition. 

"It was a great joy to see all the theoretical aerodynamics put into the aircraft not only perform in a real-world simulation, but perform very well," said Josh Lupi, lead aerodynamics team engineer on the project. 

Along with a first-place title, this experience provided the students with many valuable skills they will take with them and utilize in their future careers as engineers. The supersonic business jet was their final capstone project that led up to their graduation in May of 2023. 

The students said they garnered skills such as the importance of documenting and saving findings and results during the design stage(s) of a project, team management, how to best work with a large group of individuals, improved technical presentation writing skills, working with other universities and more. They shared their appreciation for the guidance of Villalva and the collaboration with their team members throughout the eight-month process. 

The members of the IT FLIES USA winning team: Daniel Driscoll, Liam Mckenna, Grace Fischer, Josh Lupi, Will Hausfeld, Kun-Lin Tsai, Alba Garcia Izquierdo, Alexis Laude, David Do, Emma Ochs, Jackson Dinga, Zachary Westgerdes, Brady McCluskey, Thomas Myers, Caleb Meredith and Charles Miller. 

Featured Image at top: (From left to right) Will Hausfeld, Emma Ochs, Liam Mckenna, Jackson Dinga, Grace Fischer and Daniel Driscoll near the cockpit during the test flight. Photo/Provided