Powered by team spirit
Preparation pays off. Concordia's team earned second place in the advanced class and third place in the regular class at this year's SAE Aero Design Competition in Florida.
If at first …
When a team of Concordia engineering students ventured down to Florida last year to test their abilities to design and build high-performance, remote-controlled airplanes at the annual SAE Aero Design Competition — their hopes and dreams ended in pieces by the runway.
This year they were determined not to let that happen.
“We were 100 per cent prepared when we got there,” says Kyle Petrunik, a first-year student in Mechanical Engineering and the coordinator of Concordia University SAE Aero Design team.
The team decided to enter planes in both the regular and advanced classes this time around. They built two airframes for each class, then drove to Georgia for several days of warm-weather testing prior to the event.
By the time the Concordia contingent arrived in Florida they had worked out any technical issues and felt more than ready to battle it out with the other 75 competing teams.
“Every person had their job to do and we worked like a well-oiled machine,” Petrunik recollects.
Concordia was one of only two teams to drop its payload on target during the advanced class competition.
Second and third
In the advanced class, competitors are faced with designing an aircraft capable of accurately dropping a three-pound humanitarian-aid package from a minimum height of 100 feet.
After two rounds, not one team had managed to hit the target. “Many teams’ aircrafts struggled to fly at all and most could not climb to 100 feet,” says Concordia’s advanced team leader Elias Clark, a fourth-year student in Mechanical Engineering. “It was looking like it would only take one good drop from us to take home the gold.”
In the next round, both the Georgia Institute of Technology and Concordia hit the target — then Concordia again hit the mark, but Georgia missed.
In the end Concordia’s overall score, which included points for its design report and oral presentation, earned them second place in the advanced class behind the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Planes in the regular class are judged by how much weight they are able to lift while observing power, length, width and height requirements. Concordia’s team finished in third place overall behind Brazil’s University Federal de Itajubá and first-place University of Cincinnati.
The last word
Clark, who was the coordinator of the SAE Concordia Aero Design team for two years before handing the reigns over to Petrunik, says Concordia was successful this year because the teammates overcame the challenge of working together toward a common goal.
“Never have I seen a better example of looking out for each other and helping one another, especially when under high pressure,” he says. “I think what sets us apart is what lies beneath our technical prowess — our passion, devotion and team spirit.”
Concordia SAE Racing also has teams that compete in the Baja SAE Series (off-road vehicles), as well as the Formula (race cars) and Supermileage challenges.