University of Maryland and Georgia Institute of Technology Awarded “Top Honours at VFS Student Design Competition”
The Vertical Flight Society (VFS) awarded The University of Maryland and Georgia Institute of Technology, “Top Honours” at its 41st Annual Student Design Competition for creating a “Multi-Mission Modular Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) for Disaster Relief”, reports a press release. Maryland took first place in the graduate category and Georgia the undergraduate class.
In addition, Seoul National University took “Best New Graduate Entrant Honours” and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Aviation and Aerospace University was chosen as the “Best New Undergraduate Entrant”. The U.S Army’s DEVCOM Army Research Lab was the sponsor of this year’s competition, offering USD12,500 in prize money.
The release explains, “Each year, the VFS competition challenges students to design a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft that meets specified requirements, providing a practical exercise for engineering students at colleges and universities to promote student interest in VTOL engineering and technology.”
It continues, “Academic teams from around the world submitted entries in this year’s competition, with a total of 20 proposals — eight graduate teams and twelve undergraduate teams — submitted by 16 different schools from seven different countries and six different U.S states.”
Executive Summaries for Top-Winning Entries
The goal of this year’s “Request for Proposal” (RFP) was to design a multi-mission, modular, VTOL UAS. Teams had to create an aircraft that was required to take-off and land vertically from the deck of a ship in high-winds and gusty conditions; cruise to and from the site of a disaster; serve as a long-endurance communications relay; and land vertically to deliver relief supplies. Maryland’s winning entry called Huma, named after the mythical bird, provides aid “to all in need and never has to land.”
The AeroLay Concept
The release adds, “The design was a reconfigurable lift-compounded single main rotor helicopter, offering unprecedented multi-mission capability in long endurance flight and heavy payload delivery for a VTOL UAS.
“The design philosophy focused on superior performance for both the RFP missions, enabled by a reconfigurable mid-section with special attachments for wings, fuel tank and payload bay. This gave the 353 lb Huma long endurance loiter missions of up to 13 hours or the ability to ferry supplies of up to 128 lb.”
The Georgia entry won with its AeroLay concept. The 353 lb gross weight UAS was specifically designed for disaster relief, capable of delivering payloads up to 119 lb, and remain in an area for more than 17 hours.
Time is of the essence in such missions, so the AeroLay was engineered for minimal downtime between missions, limited to under 10 minutes. It features easily swappable battery packs and a quickly accessible fuel tank, enabling rapid redeployment for various mission objectives.
Next year’s RFP 42nd Annual Student Design competition is sponsored by Airbus, where a similar amount of USD12,500 is on offer. University teams must submit a letter of intent to participate no later than February 1st.
This new RFP, entitled “Pioneering Hydrogen-Electric VTOL,” is to conceptually design an electric VTOL aircraft using gaseous hydrogen fuel-cell propulsion, while meeting several requirement constraints. The RFP is a unique opportunity for university teams to understand and overcome the specific challenges and requirements of a passenger-carrying hydrogen-electric VTOL aircraft.
The Annual Student Design Competition sponsorship rotates between Airbus, Bell, The Boeing Co., Bell, Leonardo, Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, as well as the DEVCOM Army Research Lab.
For more information
(Top image: The Huma, credit — VFS)
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