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Trencalòs’09, learning takes off
Trencalòs’09 is a plane built by seven students from the School of Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering of Terrassa that is able to carry five times its own weight.
16/11/2009
The bearded vulture is a bird in danger of extinction that is able to carry heavy weights. That is why the students from the School of Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering of Terrassa (ETSEIAT) decided on this name for the project that marked their stay at the University. Last August, their unmanned plane that can carry five times its own weight was one of the entries in the European competition, the Air Cargo Challenge (ACC), which was held in Portugal.
For its creators, it is much more than a machine designed and made by them down to the very last screw: it has been an unforgettable experience during which they have applied the knowledge acquired in class and learnt how to work on a real project in competition with other teams. Trencalòs’09 can fly with a load of up to 10 kilograms. The secret to the team’s success was almost two years of painstaking work, during which the students made all kinds of calculations, created their own material to build the plane, designed its shape and conducted dozens of tests until they managed to build a competitive prototype.
For its creators, it is much more than a machine designed and made by them down to the very last screw: it has been an unforgettable experience during which they have applied the knowledge acquired in class and learnt how to work on a real project in competition with other teams. Trencalòs’09 can fly with a load of up to 10 kilograms. The secret to the team’s success was almost two years of painstaking work, during which the students made all kinds of calculations, created their own material to build the plane, designed its shape and conducted dozens of tests until they managed to build a competitive prototype.
The secret is painstaking teamwork
“It all started when we decided to take part in the Air Cargo Challenge 2007 competition, in Lisbon, which is based on a well known competition in the USA called Design/Build/Fly. The contest is sponsored by large companies as a talent-hunting exercise. Two years ago, without any experience whatsoever, we came sixth”, said Arnau Pons, one of the founders of the team.
The Trencalòs’09 plane is an improved version of the one they built in 2007. It has a projected horizontal area of 0.7 m2 and is able to take off on a 60-metre runway. With a wingspan of three meters, the aircraft weighs less than two kilograms and is driven by a 360 W electric motor with a battery of 300 grams. This latest version is able to fly at 60 km/h with its total payload consisting of lead and the battery placed at the same point. It made maximum use of its properties to complete its mission, which in this case was to fly for a certain time with the maximum possible load.
According to Joaquim Creus, another of the team’s founders, “thanks to the experience of the previous project, the team was able to determine that the first feature to be improved was the craft’s flight dynamics. This time, accurate predictive calculations had to be made so that we could push the plane to its aerodynamic limits and minimize the risk of it crashing. These calculations were possible thanks to aerodynamic modeling using the appropriate software tools, some of which we developed ourselves".
The Trencalòs’09 plane is an improved version of the one they built in 2007. It has a projected horizontal area of 0.7 m2 and is able to take off on a 60-metre runway. With a wingspan of three meters, the aircraft weighs less than two kilograms and is driven by a 360 W electric motor with a battery of 300 grams. This latest version is able to fly at 60 km/h with its total payload consisting of lead and the battery placed at the same point. It made maximum use of its properties to complete its mission, which in this case was to fly for a certain time with the maximum possible load.
According to Joaquim Creus, another of the team’s founders, “thanks to the experience of the previous project, the team was able to determine that the first feature to be improved was the craft’s flight dynamics. This time, accurate predictive calculations had to be made so that we could push the plane to its aerodynamic limits and minimize the risk of it crashing. These calculations were possible thanks to aerodynamic modeling using the appropriate software tools, some of which we developed ourselves".
The wings are the key to success
To gauge the materials, simulations and tests were run with the collaboration of the International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE). It took seven weeks to design the final prototype and a further seven weeks to build it until Trencalòs’09 made its first successful flight.
Companies such as the consultancy Àbac Enginyeria, the precision mechanics company Gutmar, the UPC-Barcelona Tech’s Fundació Centre CIM and the Aerospace Research and Technology Centre (CTAE) sponsored the project. The seven members of the team are extremely satisfied with the results and with the experience, “because we managed to design this plane from scratch based on our own production process and a systematic approach to flight, all of which we undertook with enthusiasm and by applying the theory given in class”, said Roger Serra, a member of the team’s aerodynamics group.
The project came second in the written part of the competition and tenth in the flying competition. The results were apparently worse than in 2007, “but we know that we now have a plane whose performance is infinitely better than the one we entered in the ACC'07 event. The problems with the wheels and the state of the runway prevented the plane from performing to the level for which we had designed it”, concluded Martí Coma, the team’s pilot.
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