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Overview (Jan - Mar 2025)
Overview (Jan - Mar 2025)
Designed and built a balsa wood glider, Aquila, for the NSBE Boeing Flight Competition, constrained to a single 3x36" sheet of balsa, assembled only with glue, rubber bands, and tape, and required to carry a payload of two U.S. quarters while launching from a rubber-band mechanism. As part of a 3-person team, I focused on optimizing for flight distance, stability, payload capacity, and structural durability
Process
Process
During the development process, existing balsa glider plans and reviewed core aerodynamics/physics principles were researched (wing shape, dihedral vs. anhedral angles, tail configurations) before designing
Design 1 (Prometheus)
The first design used a V-tail with a high-dihedral wing, inverse-swept wings, and winglets. This design was very light due to its thin body.
Concept Drawings of Prometheus
The body of the plane was too thin, so a collision with the group caused it to split into 4 pieces during repeated tests
The back wings were a point of failure for the structure, with sharp edges as failure points, and the sling notch cracked under load.
Design 2 (Ithaca)
The second design used dihedral wings, a thicker body, and no inverse orientations.
A total of 3 trials were done on this prototype (2 by hand and 1 by elastic). Each time, the glider had great lift, but due to an asymmetry found in the tail, the aircraft was unstable
The asymmetry caused the aircraft to make very sharp turns. In an attempt to mitigate the issue, weight was consolidated to the opposite side of the plane
The temporary solution, however, caused more problems, as it caused the glider to dip a few seconds after takeoff.
Final Design (Aquila)
Final Design (Aquila)
The final design used a tapered, dihedral high wing; conventional tail with vertical/horizontal stabilizers; 3/8" balsa thickness; a two-part fuselage; and rounded edges to reduce stress points. A dihedral wing assembly fixture was developed and 3D printed as well.
Aquila Balancing
Dihedral Wing Assembly Fixture
Dihedral Wing Fixture CAD Model
Results
Results
Aquila flew three consecutive test flights covering 36.7 ft, 36 ft, and 30.6 ft. This was an improvement in consistency and distance over both earlier prototypes, while meeting all competition constraints on material, payload, and launch mechanism
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