Events

Each year, Oregon State University Design/Build/Fly competes in the annual AIAA DBF Competition, hosted by Cessna/Raytheon Missile Systems. This international university competition requires students to design, manufacture, and fly a remote-controlled aircraft that best meets a set mission profile. Mission requirements change annually encouraging ingenuity and creativity in plane designs. This year the competition was comprised of creating an aircraft that suited the application of a "bush" style aircraft commonly used for advertisement banner flying and small passenger payload. The competition is scored upon the completion of four missions, three flight missions and one ground mission. The three flight mission tasks the aircraft to take off within 20 feet and fly three laps for mission one in a five minute time frame, fly three timed laps with as many possible "passengers" that weighed 4 oz each and 1 additional oz for their respectful luggage in a 5 minute window. Lastly the third flight mission is to fly as many laps as possible in a ten minute time frame while remotely deploying, then towing, as long of a banner as possible with a width to length ratio between 2-5. The ground mission is a timed mission that requires one team member to load and unload all of the passengers and banner as quickly as possible. This project allows the team members to combine creative thoughts and core curriculum concepts from previous courses to enhance their design and manufacturing skills to compete at an international collegiate level. Manufacturing of composites parts such as carbon fiber, aramid, and fiberglass brings challenges of mold manufacturing in order to attain desired parts for quality, strength, and applicability. Students use previous course knowledge to justify design parameters and calculate aerodynamic stability challenges. The main team is made up of a “Senior Capstone Project Team” that changes in size every year but is typically sized between 8-12 students. The team overall consists of members of all age groups and of all skills and experience levels. These additional members also vary year to year but typically have about 3-5 new members every year. We encourage all students interested in the project and passionate about aviation to join us as it is a pleasure to inspire and teach younger students to have them better prepared for the ongoing year after the senior team graduates.