After five months of many analyses, discussions, testing, calculations, spreadsheets, drawings and construction, the EESC-USP Team finally made the official presentation of its latest project: the EESC-USP East 2008.
Due to the vice championship won last year in the SAE Brazil Aerodesign Competition with the EESC-USP Alpha, the team was once again invited to represent Brazil in the North American edition of the competition. For two consecutive years we won the Open Class here in Brazil (2005 and 2006) and then in the U.S. (2006 and 2007). This year we will go for the Regular Class, a category in which we were also champions in the U.S. back in 2002.
This new aircraft was designed specifically to compete in Aerodesign East, which will be held between April 18 an 20 in Marietta, Georgia, USA. The East 2008 is a bi-plane conventional aircraft and is expected to lift a lot of cargo; without leaving aside the structural efficiency, key point on the team’s projects.
Based on last year's Brazilian aircraft EESC-USP Alpha (Vice-champion in Brazil) and EESC-USP Bravo (fourth place in Brazil), best characteristics of each were chosen. Besides the basic points of any Aerodesign project (performance, stability, structure, etc.), there was a special concern with the viability of transporting the aircraft to the U.S. and with the possibility of building a backup airplane.
April 2 was the day of the first flight test with the backup aircraft and it behaved according to expectations. Moreover, the pilot was very satisfied with its handling. The official aircraft, more light due to improvements in the construction process, flew this week and was successful on the heavy loaded and the empty weight flight.
Thus, with all the preparations completed, the team (represented by ten of our members) is to leave for the U.S. next week. Our expectations are very high on the quality of our project. We feel honored to represent Brazil along with the CEFAST team of CEFET-MG and the Car-Kara Open, UFRN. As has been in recent years, we expect a great participation from the Brazilians in this competition.
