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MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2012
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SCIENCE
Students sweep aerospace engineering 'Olympics'
ETHAN PADWAY
ETHAN PADWAY
eoadway@kansan.com
In the "Olympics of aerospace engineering," University of Kansas students prevailed.
The University took first, second and third place in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) 2011-12 Individual Aircraft Design Competition.
The victory continues the program's strong tradition of success in the world's largest and longest running aircraft design competition, with the University winning more awards from the AIAA than any other school.
"This is the Olympics of aerospace engineering and our students have swept the Olympics," said Dr. Ron Barrett-Gonzalez, an associate professor in aerospace engineering and the project advisor.
The contest focused on designing an unlimited class plane for the Reno Air Races.
Graduate student Samantha Schuler took first place in the contest with her design, "Cratus," which she designed as a senior last year as part of her airplane design class.
Schuler emphasized safety in her design. She began working before the crash at the 2011 Reno Air Race, a crash that killed 11 people, 10 of which were spectators.
"Sam figured out how to reduce the control forces so as to allow a pilot to very exactlying control
her flight around the pylons and therefore win the race," Barrett-Gonzalez said.
Scheuler's design has a three-engine model, which enables the pilot to keep two-thirds of the plane's power running should an engine fail. This would allow the pilot to safely exit the race and return the plane to the ground.
"I looked at current racers, and most of them are World War II planes, aluminum built," Schueler said. "So I wanted to use composites and different technology that we have now that they can't implement in older planes."
Schuler gave a presentation of her design to a room full of the world's top aircraft design engineers at the AIAA Aircraft Technology, Integration and Operations Conference in Indianapolis on Sept. 19.
"it's great to come in as a freshman and hear how KU has a legacy in these competitions, and then actually be a part of that and represent the school, compete with other programs and show that KU has a lot to offer", Schauer said.
Jorrit Vervoorkdellonk, an exchange student from Delft University in the Netherlands, took second place at the competition, and University graduate Alexander Lopez from Overland Park came in third place.
— Edited by Allison Kohn
Samantha Schueler, graduate student and first place winner of the 2011-12 AIAA Aircraft design competition, stands in front of a P-51 Mustang.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
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