Penn Aerial Robotics launches the first successful flight test of the largest aircraft in the club’s history

Penn Aerial Robotics conducted its first successful flight test of its current model aircraft on October 12.

About 20 students showed up at 5 a.m. for the flight test at New Jersey’s Cross Keys Airport. The aircraft, carrying an air mass of more than 40 pounds, reached a height of 100 feet and a speed of 55 miles per hour and was able to land successfully.

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The club’s flight test was part of the preparation for the SAE Aero Design Competitionin which competitors are challenged to build an aircraft that can carry the largest possible payload with a maximum wingspan of 4.5 meters.

According to Engineering senior and PennAiR president Xiangyu Chen, this flight test is particularly impressive because it was the largest aircraft ever built in the club’s history.

“When our plane actually took off, I saw everyone thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is so cool.’ I was also very proud of the team for what we were able to come up with,” said Sakshi Lende, PennAiR Senior Engineering and Vice President of Operations. “It was super exciting to see this stuff we were all working on doing what it was supposed to do.”

The current model was built last year and PennAiR used it for the first flight during the design competition. The model was able to take off, but failed to achieve sustainable flight. This year, team members worked to revise the design to achieve a long enough flight time.

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Chen, who plays a key role in purchasing and project management, said he has followed the aircraft’s development since he joined as a freshman. He was a mechanical leader during his sophomore year and has remained involved with PennAiR through all four of his undergraduate years.

“There was definitely some disappointment last year that we weren’t able to fly the entire route we wanted,” Che said. “There was also encouragement, because since COVID there has been a kind of restart of the club.”

Club advisor Siddharth Deliwala, director of Electrical and Systems Engineering Labs, said the performance during the competition gave the team an opportunity to improve alongside their work.

Between last year’s competition and this year’s successful flight test, the team made several corrections to the model. The changes include adding a spring to part of the landing mechanism to reduce the force hitting the ground, and redesigning the tail to reduce weight.

Engineering junior Avaniko Asokkumar, vice president of finance and member of the software and mechanical teams, said the team had a heavy workload in the few weeks leading up to the competition and was glad they put everything together in time.

“I was pretty proud of how far we had come,” Asokkumar said. “I was really proud when I actually saw the plane flying.”

Che was also proud of the successful flight test, given last year’s disappointment when the plane did not make a sustained flight.

“You can see these things on the computer all the time with data and these simulations. This is the first time it works in the physical world,” Che said. “There is definitely a moment of surprise. Everyone was super excited as we went through all the different metrics and tests we had planned.

Che said this flight test not only established a routine for the club to run flights through checklists, but also built relationships within the club. He added that this flight test will be a step towards more successful flight tests, with the next one scheduled for the first week of December.

“We’re super excited to build on that and do even better this year,” said Che.

Deliwala noted that a strength of Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science is the opportunity for students to build their own projects within clubs. He stated that “this kind of innovation is irreplaceable” and keeps students motivated while building team spirit.

“This is what makes engineering exciting,” Deliwala said. “We are fortunate to have a student body that wants to do this, despite the insane homework load. That’s what fascinates me, so I’m very satisfied.”

Going forward, the club plans to continue iterating on the current model. The team aims to implement a new design estimated to reduce weight by 40% and use a new airfoil with more space for greater payload. The club also plans to branch out into creating an autonomous carbon fiber aircraft to compete in another subdivision of the competition this year.

“We are definitely making much more progress than in recent years,” said Lende. “I’m super excited to see how the carbon fiber aircraft turns out.”

Second-year engineering student and head of Research Development Endi Guo also shared confidence in the new projects.

“There are a lot of smart people working on it,” Guo said. “Autonomous flights are a challenging problem, but there are many resources available that we have taken advantage of.”