Background

The BMFA Payload Competition, hosted by the British Model Flying Association, challenges students to design and manufacture a small lightweight aircraft with a standardised propulsion system to carry a maximum payload. The materials utilised in this challenge should be cost effective and readily available. This eliminates economic advantages, and thus, for the aircraft to win, it must be both designed well aerodynamically and be structurally stable.

The StrathAIS team will undertake all aspects of the design and build stage. In the design stage, the team intends to incorporate aspects of Finite Element Analysis, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Mathematical Programming and Computer Aided Design. Once the team is satisfied with the design, the team will progress to the build stage. Throughout the build stage there will be strong emphasis on good safety practices whilst in the workshops and the team will work closely with technicians to ensure standards are upheld.

BMFA Payload Challenge 2022 Document

Team Structure

The team structure is largely dependent on interest from StrathAIS members in the project. The number of teams undertaking the project will also be decided upon the level of interest. Generally, the teams will be decided depending on the academic interests of the team, the level of experience of the team members and the academic year of the members. It is StrathAIS’ intention to offer this project to those desiring to win the competition and those who simply wish to learn more about aviation or build their engineering skills.

Thus, the team structure will largely follow a similar structure akin to real world industrial engineering practices. The Aviation Team Leader, Elyse Millard, will act as a technical director for all the teams and will be counted within the allowed 5 team members. In this role, she will act as a first contact of support for each team, provide feedback and advice, and offer in person and online opportunities/workshops to improve engineering skills such as FEA, CFD etc. The remaining 4 team members will each head a sub-team department within their team with one member acting as a group leader. This group leader will be in charge of ensuring the managing their team’s project i.e. preparing a Gantt Chart, ensuring the team is on track and communicating major issues to the Aviation Team Leader.

The sub team roles are as follows;

• Structures Lead

• Stability Lead

• Aerodynamics Lead

• Propulsion and Control Surfaces Lead

It must be noted that whilst these titles have been allocated as such, no team member is confined to working in just that area. It is predicted AND ADVISED that as time passes, team needs will change and accordingly, efforts will be refocused.

It is the intentions of the society to introduce students to real world engineering practices. Thus, the structures team will be encouraged and guided to use FEA software to validate their designs and then produce CAD models and technical drawings for the report section of the challenge. The aerodynamics team will similarly be advised to utilise CFD in areas such as airfoil selection and blockage ratio from engine position. Both the propulsion and control surfaces, and stability tam leaders will be challenged to utilise mathematical programming techniques (MATLAB or Excel) to perform calculations and optimisation processes.

Timeline

Meetings between Aviation Team Lead and groups to be held on a weekly basis at minimum. Ideally there will be atleast two sessions a week. One session of a Q&A type and one session of a more tutorial based type.

Meetings between Aviation Team Lead and groups to be held on a weekly basis at minimum. Ideally there will be atleast two sessions a week. One session of a Q&A type and one session of a more tutorial based type.

• 19th September – Gauge interest in the project

• 26th September – Hold an introductory meeting within the team. Introduce the project aims, specifications, team structures and project roles. TBC – likely a group self-selection process but this should be discussed with StrathAIS board. It is our intention to make this a fun project to complete with friends but there is also educational benefits of groups consisting of mixed years/degree fields.

• 3rd October - Announce groups, allow members to allocate themselves to a role of their choosing. Ask groups to nominate a group leader and prepare an individual group Gantt Chart.

• 3rd October – Aviation Team Lead to provide background material to get the groups started.

• 3rd October – Weekly meetings to commence.

• 3rd October – End of Semester 1 considered the design phase.

• W1 Semester 2 – Finalisation of designs.

• W2 Semester 2 – Workshop safety briefing

• W2 Semester 2 to W8 Semester 2 – The build phase. Ideally, workshop technicians will be contacted in advance to assist with the manufacture. All team members to be involved in the design phase and supervised by team lead

• W5 Semester 2 – Report writing and Drawings to be started

- Competition Interest to be registered by April

- Competition to take place in June in Lincoln