The EESC-USP AeroDesign Team has reached once again an excelent result in the international competition AeroDesign East 2010. The event occurred in United States, from April 30th until May 02nd.

The team took part with three projects, one in each cathegory: Micro, Advanced and Regular.

The airplane EESC-USP Micro led the competition since the beginning. The Rules of the Micro Class demanded that the airplane, disassembled, fitted into a walled of 18 x 13 x 5.5 in, and the great challenge was to compatible this severe dimensional restrictition to the capacity of lifting high weight. The team decided so to design a big airplane for the category, however portable, dismountable in many parts.

The project was well exhibited in the Technical Report and in the Oral Presentation, what provided the team the 1st place in the Design phase. Then, in the flight batteries, the aircraft kept leading the competition, ending Champion with 16 points advantage! It also won 3 other awards.

For the Advanced Class, the team adapted the winner of AeroDesign East 2009 to the new rules, that required the design of a Data Acquisition System (DAS) on board, to measure the takeoff distance.

In this category, the team reached the 5th place in the Design phase. In the flight batteries, the airplane performed 4 flights with 39.4 lb of payload, that provided the award of Highest Payload. Howerver, the DAS haven't worked properly, due to the vibration induced by the engines, and the team finished in 2nd place.

In the Regular Class, the team appealed to new materials to replace FRPs (Fiber Reinforced Plastics) and also directed the project toward the goal of lifting high payload abibing by the dimensional restrictions.

The result of the Design phase disappointed the team, that was placed from 10.3 points to the leader. However, the aircraft demonstrated great reliability in the flight batteries - it hasn't lost any of the 6 flight attempts. On the 1st, the airplane perfomed the empty flight and obtaind a bonus of 10 points, reducing the disadvantage against some other teams. In each of the next attempts, the team raised the payload lifted by the airplane, finishing in the last battery, when it carried 31.5 lb, a record for the history of EESC-USP team. This result would give our team the 2nd place. But in the same battery, surprising everybody, the also brazilian Cefast team flew with 32.31 lb, and took the 1st place. So, EESC-USP team finished in 3rd Place Overall.

In the summary, the team finished with 9 awards:

Micro -
1st PlaceTechnical Presentation
2nd Place Written Design Report
1st Place Highest Payload Fraction
1st Place Overall

Regular -
2nd Place Highest Payload
3rd Place Overall

Advanced -
1st Place Highest Payload
3rd Place Technical Presentation
2nd Place Overall

To complete the whole set, the members still won a Futaba 7C radio control in a raffle.

We thank our sponsors, our pilot Flademir Cesarin and the whole university for supporting this great achievement.