{"id":28602,"date":"2024-05-06T21:32:11","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T21:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=28602"},"modified":"2024-05-06T21:32:13","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T21:32:13","slug":"vertical-flight-society-announces-the-winners-of-the-4th-annual-design-build-vertical-flight-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/aviation-education\/vertical-flight-society-announces-the-winners-of-the-4th-annual-design-build-vertical-flight-competition\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Vertical Flight Society Announces the Winners of the 4th Annual Design-Build-Vertical Flight Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo above – Texas A&M University Wins Top Honors in Student eVTOL Drone Competition.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vertical Flight Society (VFS) has announced the winners\nof its fourth annual Design-Build-Vertical Flight (DBVF) Competition. Texas\nA&M University took first place, University of Maryland took second and the\nGeorgia Institute of Technology took third. VFS awarded a total of more than\n$5,000 in the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the original 16 teams that entered the competition in\nOctober, nine teams flew a wide range of exotic aircraft designs at the\nculminating event in Churchville, Maryland, on April 10\u201312, 2024. The\ncompetition required the university teams to complete several deliverables\nthroughout the year, including a final technical report, an on-site team\npresentation, a manually piloted flight performance course and a fully\nautonomous flight course. The original 16 teams included a spread of\nuniversities across the United States, along with entrants from Malaysia, India\nand Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This annual electric-powered vertical take-off and landing\n(VTOL) uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) competition seeks to encourage interest\nin vertical flight, electric aviation, autonomy and uncrewed systems\ntechnology, as well as small air vehicle design and fabrication. The\ncompetition is designed to develop hands-on skills and familiarization with\neVTOL technology at the university student level and prepare the next\ngeneration of engineers and leaders to push the limits of this exciting\ntechnology into the future. More information on the competing teams and\ncompetition requirements can be found at www.vtol.org\/fly<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SURVICE Engineering hosted the competition flyoff for the\nsecond year in a row at its Applied Technology Operation (ATO) at Harford\nCounty Airport in Churchville, Maryland. Teams flew their custom designed and\nhand-built drones in SURVICE\u2019s flight operations area, which it operates under\na Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Certificate of Waiver or Authorization\n(COA). The drones were limited to a maximum takeoff weight of 20 lb (9 kg) and\na maximum dimension of 10 ft (3 m).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All nine of the teams attending the in-person competition\nrecorded flight time, five of the teams meeting a significant amount of the\nflyoff competition deliverables. Teams were required to manually pilot their\naircraft over a rectangular course, with a vertical takeoff and landing on each\nlap to simulate the real operation of these drones and test their vehicle\u2019s\nefficiency in both hovering performance and cruise endurance. The autonomous\nattempt required the vehicle to take off, navigate the course, and land, all\nwhile the pilot\u2019s hands were off the control sticks. Four teams completed the\nautonomous course requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The week in Churchville delivered some harsh weather\nconditions for the teams to fly in. Winds at 20 mph (32 km\/h) gusting 40 mph\n(64 km\/h) set the stage for a number of extreme crashes throughout the\ncompetition. Several of the teams bounced back after significant crashes,\nhowever, repairing their drones and getting back out on the flight line. A\nmajority of the teams pursued challenging VTOL configurations such as\ntailsitter aircraft, biplane tailsitters, and even a tiltrotor like the V-22\nOsprey. Strong winds on Thursday afternoon and a minor flight test incident\nresulted in the flight line being closed down on Thursday afternoon. The event\ncontinued, however, with some of the team presentations and a fantastic tour of\nthe SURVICE operations. Presenting teams had to work around the buzz of the\nadjacent and highly active runway. Various piston and turboprop aircraft were\ntaking flight throughout the week, and even a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk and a\nBell 206 JetRanger made appearances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Torrential rain Thursday evening spilled over into Friday\nmorning. The North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC\nA&T), who had a tenuous fully autonomous landing the day prior, attempted\nto fly in the gale-like storm Friday morning. While the other teams hunkered\ndown in the large carnival tent with several thousand pounds of concrete blocks\nsecuring it firmly to the runway, the NC State Hover Hounds covered their drone\nin a garbage bag to protect the electronics from the elements for a successful\nflight. Several other teams squeezed in successful last-minute flights despite\nthe unfavorable flying conditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the overall competition scoring, which included the\ncombined scores from the technical report, team presentations, and flyoff\nperformance, the Texas A&M University took home the 1st place prize and\n$2,750 with their impressive biplane tailsitter aircraft, the University of\nMaryland secured 2nd and $1,125, and the Georgia Institute of Technology earned\n3rd place and received $650; Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University received $500\nfor the Best Technical Report. SURVICE Engineering staff presented the \u201cBest\nCrash\u201d award to the University of Maryland for a nose-dive from a 100-ft\n(30-ft) altitude, and \u201cBest New Entrant\u201d to NC A&T for their ingenuity and\nresilience in combatting the weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to SURVICE Engineering, which hosted the event\nand helped run the competition, Supernal was the Gold Sponsor and Ansys made\nits simulation software available to the teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe would like to thank the many volunteers that help\nthroughout the year to pull off the event, as well as the several reviewers,\njudges, and SURVICE staff that provide teams feedback on their deliverables and\nthe opportunity to fly their aircraft competitively at the culminating event,\u201d\nsaid Dr. Jason K. Cornelius of NASA Ames Research Center, who volunteers as the\nVFS DBVF Program Director. \u201cOverall, the 4th Annual VFS DBVF competition was a\nmonumental success, with teams working together to help each other overcome\nsetbacks and push their aircraft to the limits. VFS looks forward to the 5th\nAnnual DBVF competition, and for new university teams and supporters from\naround the world to join in on the fun.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founded as the American Helicopter Society in 1943, the\nVertical Flight Society is the global non-profit society for engineers,\nscientists and others working on vertical flight technology. For more than 80\nyears, the Society has led technical, safety, advocacy and other important\ninitiatives, and has been the primary forum for interchange of information on\nvertical flight technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo above – Texas A&M University Wins Top Honors in Student eVTOL Drone Competition. The Vertical Flight Society (VFS) has announced the winners of its fourth annual Design-Build-Vertical Flight (DBVF) Competition. Texas A&M University took first place, University of Maryland took second and the Georgia Institute of Technology took third. VFS awarded a total of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28603,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[144,98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aerospace-education","category-aviation-education"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Verticle-Flight-TAMU-VFS-DBVF2024-1st-Team-edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28604,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28602\/revisions\/28604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}