SAE Aero Design West 2023!

[@alexbuss3377]

Shout out to all of the people supporting these teams!! Most of these teams are a small group of students 10-20 who design and build the plane from the ground up. They’re only allowed one academic year to work on the plane. And they have to work on the plane outside of school. They do this in addition to school. Most of the schools attending don’t have aerospace degrees. Most of these teams are made up of rc enthusiasts.

[@adamhale6672]

In my experience with these competitions it is usually the opposite. Most of the students are engineering enthusiasts with little to no experience with RC aircraft and a handful of RC enthusiasts thrown into the mix.

[@gamingnation77minecraft]

​@Adam Hale I would disagree, when the competition ends the team busts out there personal planes and go flying at the feild. From the teams I know about half of the students are passionate RC hobbyist.

[@brucegaskill1236]

Reminded me of the old days at the park. All the newbies with foamies . Nobody told me I needed to worry about CG.

[@cubgsan]

Good day to you! I am a grandpa rider on HONDA motorcycle from Japan. Enjoying camping ,touring and upload video. Your event video is so nice! Awesome! Full supported ! Have a nice day my friend!

[@FlyRC]

Thanks, glad you like it. Enjoy your travels.

[@rusty383]

I Love the Texas A&M plane .Beautiful Design

[@tiporari]

Well done students. My favorite rule of aircraft design is this. " If it looks good, it will fly good." - Bill Lear of Learjet fame. My second favorite is this: Nose heavy planes fly poorly. Tail heavy planes fly once.😂

[@rusty383]

Wow ! After the Beautiful Jet Some Real Flying. Awesome!

[@listkarl-heinz9060]

Vielen Dank für das mega Video. Lg Karl-Heinz

[@FlyRC]

You're very, very welcome.

[@KenKnotts1]

Great video Phil, thank you so much for sharing.

[@MrHelidude]

Incredible. A joy to watch. Absolutely amazing designs ..... ☆☆☆☆☆

[@chrisberardi2304]

Isn't Thunderbird field beautiful? - What a great show by the club, Lockheed Martin, SAE and the students.

[@FlyRC]

Yes! very impressive.

[@garyjames2148]

Thanks Phil! We appreciate your great videos! Great Job!

[@MasboyRC]

Great video, it's so entertaining 👍

[@FlyRC]

Thanks, it was an exciting, and interesting event.

[@MasboyRC]

@@FlyRC yeahhh.. sure, greetings from indonesia 🇮🇩

[@kevinsellsit5584]

So many of these designs would have been more impressive had the conditions been so harsh. Like flying a Cessna into a tornado harsh. Conventional designs like Texas A&M shine bright as did some of the high tail wing designs, while narrow landing gear and or flying wing designs were caught off guard by the high winds. In my book everyone there was a winner under those conditions.

[@ThomasPCGuruENGINES]

Should have been postponed or shifted to indoor stadium!

[@CanadianGrenadian]

Thanks for sharing 🌞

[@raztaz826]

Looks like fun! Some of them remind me of a university project I did. Emphasis was engineering design process and not about actually getting a plane that flies, nobody had experience designing or building a plane and so we made some iffy calculations for a wordy report, passed it in and all the planes flew maybe 2 feet.

[@evelkenevel7948]

Thanks for posting this it was alot of fun watching!!

[@FlyRC]

Great! glad you liked it. Thanks.

[@monoptique621]

My congratulations to all the participants. The originality was there. Greetings from France.

[@FlyRC]

Thank you!!!

[@jirihamersky6152]

This is one of the best videos I've seen. Incredibly interesting. This is classic modeling work. Such beauty. Thanks for the link.

[@FlyRC]

My pleasure and what a pleasure to have been there to capture it. Thanks.

[@cratecruncher6687]

At least the Aggies stuck their landing. So much crosswind that day. But it certainly tested the stability of each design. I'm a old school rc pilot and I'd have packed it in for the day. Planes take a long time to build!

[@icin4d]

Many of them looked like the CG was just back a little too far.

[@rusty383]

What a nice event! Thank You so much! God Bless you! I would Love to attend this!

[@FlyRC]

Thanks, the event is held in various regions each year. Checkout the event highlights and more, here: www.saeaerodesign.com/cdsweb/app/news.aspx

[@adityaganesh6804]

Thx for the video!! We usually don't get such a long video of all the fights. And we don't get to see other planes fly as we focus on our own plane. So this was really helpful thx!!!

[@FlyRC]

Great, glad you like it :-)

[@khfoust1]

Impressive performance against those winds!

[@FlyRC]

No doubt!

[@nocknock4832]

@@FlyRC how fast were they?

[@FlyRC]

@@nocknock4832 Very, very slow. Possibly 15-30 mph on average.

[@Cre8tvMG]

I'm sorry, but 12:59 was one of the most beautiful things I've seen this week! 😀

[@77Avadon77]

Same here.. Just golden. I honestly expected more from these students. I can only imagine that the design restrictions/limitations must be bizarre because the aircraft performance is horrendous.

[@Blueberry954]

@@77Avadon77 so did I!! Our team was supposed to be there, but we built a manhole cover of a drone that wouldn’t fly in a million years. The only big restrictions to the micro class was that the wingspan couldn’t be more than 36 inches and the power output 750W.

[@fukairen9601]

I took part in this competition for 2 times, 2017-18, in micro class, interesting memory.

[@andrewmagro7703]

That was absolutely Amazing thank you so much for putting together such a video it almost felt like i was in the crowd , Kudos to your work and that of all whom participated , Thank you 🙂

[@FlyRC]

My pleasure and what a pleasure to have been there to capture it. Thanks.

[@rusty383]

Beautiful! Completely in control!

[@randytucker3083]

Loads of fun. Great work!!!

[@GarryRife]

EXCELLENT !!! Wish I had been there. Great show !

[@FlyRC]

It was spectacular...Kept me recording it waaaay past the time I intended.

[@joelamb3581]

I was pretty proud of the 42:48 kids for their high-lift, low-drag design. Then they did their landing trick... That's damn clever. Bravo.

[@FlyRC]

Absolutely!

[@coriscotupi]

Fun event. It seems that the prerequisite to qualify for entering the competition was to have never, ever designed an RC model airplane before.

[@masoodhusain784]

The best takeoff and landings at last moments congrats.

[@deanedeane4318]

Great filming Man ... Awsum job....😎

[@FlyRC]

Thanks, it was my pleasure and a pleasure to be there to capture it.

[@Shadismic]

Is this the “Why do right if you can do wrong” competition? In this case it is very educational 👍👏👏👏

[@lord_scrubington]

its a contest to lift the maximum payload, with an emphasis on heavy wing loading and low power motors

[@Shadismic]

@@lord_scrubington You see, that’s what I mean. This seems like the wrong thing to do. And I take the crashes as my reference.

[@lord_scrubington]

@@Shadismic tbh, I'm surprised there were no biplane designs. And the lifting bodies all seemed to fair quite badly in the weather conditions

[@mikeschroeder9673]

Great job Phil on the video and Thanks to all the Thunderbird club members who volunteer to support SAE and Lockheed Martin

[@FlyRC]

Thanks, it all came together with outstanding results.

[@mrMankx]

Great editing!

[@FlyRC]

Thank you! It was a pleasure and a challenge.

[@brianvaughn2096]

Just think, the men back in the 60’s designed and built the SR71 black bird with a slide rule.

[@joseenriquetomasperez3912]

LONG LIVE THE WOMEN AEROMODELS

[@roberttperez1153]

I've subscribed because i have been intrigued by the hobby of rc planes. I've been designing my own planes from scrap pieces drone/rc car parts and know how challenging it is produce a plane that actually flies. I think its what de drives me to the hobby. So congrats to all who have had success in this video, and off this video as well of course. Thank you for sharing this event. I'd like to attend one of your events so I hope you can inform me of future events. Have fun. The sky is the limit.

[@FlyRC]

Excellent, and welcome.

[@nonoyorbusness]

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. LOL I was building flying models when I was 14! And my own RC.

[@rusty383]

Such a Head Wind some designs could almost stand still with just the amount of power.

[@ThomasDoubting5]

tough day to fly on especially with experimental designs, good job .

[@FlyRC]

They were great under the circumstances.

[@dougturner2036]

Elevator falls off... Guy from the crowd: c'mon hang on to it, you got it. 😅

[@FlyRC]

Keeping hope alive :-)

[@JPspinFPV]

This is a fantastic competition that we should be cultivating at a middle and high school level. Also, there is more pressure on the pilots skill in the field than anyone else in the process. That shouldn't be the make or break. Anyone with some stick time can fly with that jet on a modern flight controller.

[@FlyRC]

Thanks, very well said.

[@frankienv3906]

great job, but I think lots of these planes didn't have a fair chance with that gusty Wind. Are they allowed to have a 3 axis gyro stabilizer onboard..? That would have helped a lot.

[@lcfflc3887]

Gyros or no gyros, poor weather conditions on purpose i guess and bad horrible designs with very little thrust from the motors compared to the size of the airplanes, it's also why in spite of all of this the much smaller aircrafts did better, less heavy and less drag.

[@abundantYOUniverse]

This is fantastic thanks!

[@FlyRC]

Thanks, it was fun, and exciting.

[@dwightschrute4750]

There are a lot of restrictions like a 750W power limiter, maximum wingspan, weight limit, etc. And since the scoring formula considers things like weight these models are pushing the boundaries of weight-to-thrust. Hence, they look so slow and barely able to fly.

[@FlyRC]

Correct.

[@fredherfst8148]

Any restrictions on dihedral?

[@dwightschrute4750]

@@fredherfst8148 Not really

[@ThomasPCGuruENGINES]

I was pretty gutted for those kids with those big slow designs facing such wind and big objects like trees nearby. If flyday couldn't be postponed then it should have been in an indoor stadium. WELL DONE ALL

[@jlqtraceur]

Its a design competition, the whole point of it is to design a plane that will fly in extreme conditions

[@serg_svm5398]

Very cool!

[@rusty383]

So many years later and the Wright Brothers still live!

[@FlyRC]

Absolutely

[@p47thunderboltd]

Thanks again for getting the awesome video up, Phil!! This will be a huge help for our future events! -Zeke

[@FlyRC]

Thanks Zeke, it was my pleasure and a pleasure to be there to capture it :-)

[@gmivisualsjason3729]

Looking forward to seeing more from this drone.........

[@collinmccallum]

amazing!

[@AndrzejSQ9PKW]

Yay, gratulacje Wrocław!

[@FlyRC]

They performed very well.

[@kosmokatinperson8835]

Saw some fascinating problem-solving by many of these teams. “Great job!” to everyone! Wish the wx could have been more favorable. Stellar video!

[@kosmokatinperson8835]

…and, Gig ‘em, Aggies!!

[@capnpete1154]

Is this Thunderbird Field at Benbrook Lake? I used to go there, literally, 50 yrs. ago as a teen drooling over RC planes. I couldn't afford it then. I fly at WSRC in N. Carolina now. Next time I visit family in FW, I'll drop by!

[@FlyRC]

Thanks, and yes it's Thunderbird Field at Benbrook lake. www.fwthunderbirds.org.

[@rusty383]

Now that Jet really Showed off.

[@Soshstar999]

America's brightest minds in aviation, goes to show that you can make anything fly

[@FlyRC]

Thanks, this event involved several countries and I was very impressed with what they were able to get airborne under the various conditions and criteria.

[@Soshstar999]

@phillydee the only sad part of the story is where is the advanced class of aviation, or do you have a criteria for advancements in aviation that are supported by the schools or is that just for NASA and the military industrial complex

[@FlyRC]

Here's some of the highlights of the event on SAE's website. It list some of the various categories. www.saeaerodesign.com/cdsweb/app/news.aspx

[@Soshstar999]

@@FlyRC what of it would you yourself consider to be advanced aviation if any

[@lohikarhu734]

It would be great if you could show the design rules in the Description, or, at least, a link to the rules...it's harder to appreciate what is going on, without knowing the 'ground rules' ;-)

[@FlyRC]

All the details are on their website......www.saeaerodesign.com/

[@julesdomes6064]

@@FlyRC Gave up finding it there. Please give a short summary of the challenge in the description. Otherwise we have no idea what we are watching.

[@scrumpyenglish]

From what I can gather: Rules - entrants must be mechanically inept, only use materials unsuitable for model aircraft and no test flights. Points based on how intact it stays after one circuit?! Fun watching all the same and at least the hobby is being kept alive ✌️

[@lohikarhu734]

@@julesdomes6064 from the rules pages... SAE Aero Design features three classes of competition-Regular, Advanced, and Micro. 1. The Regular Class is an all-electric class intended to develop a fundamental understanding of aircraft design. 2. The Advanced Class is an all-electric class designed to inspire future engineers to take a systems approach to problem solving, at the same time, exposing them to explore the possibilities of autonomous flights. 3. The Micro Class is an all-electric class designed to help students balance trades studies between multiple conflicting requirements. e.g. carrying the highest payload fraction possible, while simultaneously pursuing the lowest empty weight possible. ... The students may use any literature or knowledge related to R/C aircraft design and construction and information from professionals or from professors, as long as the information is given as discussion of alternatives with their pros and cons and is acknowledged in the references in the design report. ...

[@julesdomes6064]

@@lohikarhu734 Still nothing about the rules for this particular event, so to 99.9% of us it just looks like a bunch of inept guys building poorly designed models and flying them very poorly.

[@JFrazer4303]

Very tough: in that wind, never having flown the plane before, and not having active stabilization. Some of the conventional but with lifting fuselage volume planes did creditably well. A few of the very-low aspect-ratio and no tail but vertical fins, and "unitary wing-lifting body" designs did ok, for the conditions. Give them stabilization and a few more flights to get the hang of a new design. I'm a student of things like the Arup, and Nemeth "parachute plane", the Eshelman (known as the "flying flounder), and the Horton "Wingless", the Hatfield "Little Bird", and the Rowe "UFO", the Aereon-26, and Wainfan "Facetmobile".

[@77Avadon77]

I don't get it really. Like they can't google "lifting body" and build something that works? Their concept aircraft come off like they have no access to the internet and any of mans 100+ years of aviation.

[@rusty383]

I read some of the comments I understand. This is a arrow dynamics computation. Kool

[@shakdidagalimal]

39:25 Best flyer yet, this team knows what dihedral is.

[@FlyRC]

Yeah, the aerodynamic advantage of it really shows on this one.

[@MarkJoseph-vv4pj]

The math and physics driving the aerodynamics is actually quite impressive. Blown away by the resourcefulness of these students.

[@nocknock4832]

great fun !

[@FlyRC]

Absolutely!

[@sleeplessstu]

I think those who criticize are missing the WHOLE point. This endeavor is for FUN by non-aviation students. If you can get an airplane to fly with little knowledge or expert input, it’s an awesome experience. They’re using an iterative process very much like Space-Ex used to perfect their rocket. People in the USA aren’t AFRAID to fail like in many other authoritarian countries. We learn by DOING stuff not by stealing other’s technological secrets ! 😏

[@breeder1705]

This is so cool can you send me the building plans of a wet towel, I guess I’m going to slap a motor on it flies about the same way. Instead of wasting all your time with this go to church and pray a little bit. It is very important.

[@FlyRC]

Thanks for the visit. The contest rules and all of the details can be found on their site. www.saeaerodesign.com/cdsweb/gen/DocumentResources.aspx

[@haroldanderson6021]

Great job on the video! I don't know how much time it took to edit and build this video but I know it would take me two days or so at least.....

[@FlyRC]

Thanks, it took approximately 8hrs to capture the "B" roll footage, and an additional 5hrs to create the 1hr 7min video for all to enjoy :-)

[@patrickradcliffe3837]

Were the students not allowed to use principals like dihedral and forward CoG to have more stable aircraft?

[@ThomasPCGuruENGINES]

Yeah I was wondering this. Remembering free-flight designs from the pre-rc days

[@seanfalconer7182]

They ought to put a Great Planes Inc. logo on it and call it "The BIG STIK" 😎👍🏻

[@gamingnation77minecraft]

That would disgrace to the airplanes

[@johnmajane3731]

Most are very short coupled which makes them sensitive. The long wing planes are not stiff enough and the flexing causes them to lose control

[@gamingnation77minecraft]

There are different classes, the small ones had a max wingspan the big ones had a min and max wing span (10 ft min)

[@johnmajane3731]

@@gamingnation77minecraft doesn't change that they are short coupled.

[@marcellebaudry5786]

bravo

[@deangiacopassi1951]

Would be nice to know what the competition was about.

[@FlyRC]

All of the event details can be found on the SAE website www.saeaerodesign.com.

[@vladimir-pilot]

Its COOL! ✈🛩🚀

[@FlyRC]

Thanks Vlad.

[@fredherfst8148]

Today's lesson. Flat board bad. Flat boards with dihedral worse. Camber good. Camber and dihedral 👌

[@FlyRC]

Thanks, very true.

[@LCMNUNES1962]

MUITO LEGAL SHOW 👍👍🇧🇷

[@FlyRC]

Yes, thanks.

[@rusty383]

I noticed a lot of designs simple needed more Power! The wide in a lot of ways was a make or break situation. If you could fly in that you could Fly anywhere.

[@malkymoo2]

A few questions, what's SAE? What are the rules with the aircraft? is it weight, power? Who are the people? Some great looking aircraft

[@FlyRC]

All of the event details can be found on the SAE website www.saeaerodesign.com. Thanks.

[@malkymoo2]

@@FlyRC Cool bananas! Thank you.

[@kingofcastlechaos]

That wind! Beautiful flying facility and great talent. Thanks for sharing. I tried to find out more about this competition, but the website provided is seriously lacking in anything useful. Can somebody point me to a website that speaks to the overall competition and rules? I mentor a robotics team but have some kids who lean towards aeronautics. Thanks

[@FlyRC]

You can access the rules here. www.saeaerodesign.com/cdsweb/gen/DocumentResources.aspx

[@pietia771]

Has anyone flown these models before the competition?

[@gamingnation77minecraft]

Alot of the teams have members that are very passionate members of the RC community, the rules make the teams think outside the box

[@Cre8tvMG]

So what are the design limitations/requirements of the competition aircraft?

[@airtoair5711]

Mostly plane is a under power

[@gamingnation77minecraft]

The airplanes are watt limited per the rules 750 watts for example for the big ones

[@alexbuss3377]

@@gamingnation77minecraft correct.

[@aabumble9954]

r/Englrish.

[@jouhannaudjeanfrancois891]

i am very worried about the gen7 fighters

[@gamingnation77minecraft]

Well the gen7 fighters have a very different mission from the incredibly difficult one of this competition

[@Omi-GK]

Ailerons deflected to the wind!!!

[@rusty383]

Points the wind almost dead looking at the tree's

[@mattwyborski5366]

Great video! What camera and lens are you using to record this?

[@johnalbu2319]

My exact initial thought.

[@rusty383]

Were these all experimental designs? Looks like the wind was really tough.

[@dillonbledsoe7680]

12:50 me starting my business

[@FlyRC]

Good deal, you've gotta start somewhere.

[@billkraemer4710]

Texas AM needs a bit more rudder authority, at least cope with the wind. Very nice.

[@saraheart8527]

I couldn't bring myself to watch the whole thing. Was this a "Who can have WAY too much wing area" and still have it fly contest?

[@FlyRC]

Thanks for the visit. The contest rules and all of the details can be found on their site. www.saeaerodesign.com/cdsweb/gen/DocumentResources.aspx

[@saraheart8527]

@@FlyRC Thank you for that! Very nice of you.

[@michaelwhinnery164]

Next year all of these crafts will need to be equipped with remote ID and be registered with the FAA adding significant costs and regulation fees to all of these teams. I feel safer already knowing that the federal beaurocrats are protecting the public from these Dangerous flying machines and knowing that if any of them get out of line they will be able to hunt them down and hold them accountable.

[@gamingnation77minecraft]

Because that is the goal of the competition to sue college kids. These are RC feilds that will be approved areas to fly without remote ID btw. Have fun with your Phantom

[@michaelwhinnery164]

@@gamingnation77minecraft it crashed and broke... I have a mini 2 now 😎

[@divyajnana]

Foooooking wind. The right competition in the WRONG place. You wouldn't fly a full size Piper Cub in this wind much less models.

[@augustoduran5328]

vaya tunda metieron los españoles!

[@herryrachmad6597]

Will somsone let me know the stand for SAE ?

[@johnmajane3731]

Society of automotive engineers

[@herryrachmad6597]

@@johnmajane3731 thanks a lot John, and why the design looks very unique

[@Paiadakine]

@@johnmajane3731 which is one reason some aircraft fly not so well

[@rusty383]

A lot of lift body Designs. Hard to control. I have made a few with vertical Lift by putting two motors in the widest part of the wing then pull with the nose motor.

[@umvhu]

Are there parameters to this event that inhibit innovation?

[@FlyRC]

Thanks, all of the event details can be found on the SAE website www.saeaerodesign.com.

[@rusty383]

The big yellow one has no lift to hold the air! Like holding a Card board box. Even with 100 motors it can't fly .Not without lift.

[@uhfybngnn1007]

1:03 стартует Светлана Капанина! ))

[@EJ-74]

44:06 Dang that thing did a death roll and let out a death squel then did the death twitch Suckers 💀 lol

[@SoaringSimulator]

In short, what is this unstable event about?

[@FlyRC]

All of the event details can be found on the SAE website www.saeaerodesign.com.

[@acptelford1307]

@@FlyRCIt would be more helpful if you answered the questions instead giving a standard reply pointing to a website.

[@SomeTechGuy666]

Are the planes limited to single element wings ? If not, why is nobody using a high lift, multi element wing ?

[@w8stral]

Short answer: They are limited by take off distance(100ft) and the lower Lift/Drag ratio of high lift slats/flaps + increased Reynolds number required slows them down and the Velocity is hurt. Velocity squared in the equation is FAR bigger importance than the linear CL. So, pick single highest lift airfoil in existence. PS: the designs this year were pitiful... Longer answer: They are all using s1223 airfoil or maybe Eppler 423 giving a CL of 2.2 @ Re of 200,000. And honestly this is a left over from bygone days of old rules. With only 100ft take off distance they should be using an airfoil with lower Reynolds number as both of those require ~175,000 and I don't think any of those flying actually hit 175,000 at 100ft. That airfoil airflow detaches at 150,000, but is partially doable. But, also why one saw very large area wings used here... A Slat would give a theoretical CL of 2.4 or so with a normal airfoil and when combined with flaps ~20 gives CL of 2.8 but also requires a MUCH higher reynolds number officially if you look up that specs(In reality no one has bothered to test at lower Reynolds number), but if you are a student who is looking to use MINIMUM amount of time on said project, testing high lift devices is a non starter. Likewise said devices add a TON of drag. if everything is perfect, huge rotation AoA is required with slats as well creating other problems but that comes with a giant AoA rotation and a HUGE amount of drag. Flaps give drag mostly and help for landing but any competent pilot at competition comes close to landing and turns the ailerons into flaps dropping it down and then flipping the switch flipping them into spoilers. Also, these "teams" are all volunteer which means they do it for resume, not for a grade so minimal amount of time is put in generally speaking. Most are not Aerodynamic students either and know very little about aircraft design. A team of 10+ students might have ~2 or 3 who do any work on said aircraft.