Iowa State University’s - Cyclone Aero Design

By Mark Macchia, Brian Gerike, Jerod Heying, Erin Mitchell, and Jason Whited

Cyclone Aero Design, an emerging new engineering club at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, is giving students valuable experience in the aviation industry. Cyclone Aero Design was created by students two years ago to develop technical skills to build upon their classroom experiences. These students are exposed to a wide variety of experiences including iterative design, detailed analysis, and manufacturing alongside leadership, program management, and business skills. Additionally required for their competition is a technical design paper, and technical design reviews among peers and professionals. Currently, the team has seven sponsors and partners to fund a $10,000 budget, which is completely student fundraised. The team has almost tripled in size since its founding in Fall 2016, going from 12 members to 34 across six subteams. Both the team and its members have grown tremendously over the last two years in many different ways. Growth in communication, sustainability, and design and manufacturing principles has been clearly evident.

Aero Design is one of five competition teams in the student group called Iowa State SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers), a 220 member organization based on Iowa State University’s campus in Ames. The organization is one of the largest of its kind, providing college students with engineering, project management, marketing, and finance opportunities. Along with Aero Design, Iowa State SAE has four more teams: Baja, an off-road, single seat vehicle; Clean Snowmobile Challenge, a highly modified snowmobile that is designed to hold strict emissions and noise standards; Formula, an on-road open wheeled race car with extensive aerodynamic elements; and Supermileage, a high-efficiency vehicle designed to achieve more than 800 mpg. All vehicles, with the exception of the snowmobile, are designed from the ground up, and all five are manufactured completely by students. Many of the technologies developed and utilized in each of the vehicles can be translated into the aviation industry, including high-efficiency engine design, complex and ground-effect aerodynamics, and structural element design.

a full 360 degree circuit, and then land within 400 ft. Scoring is based off of the amount of passengers aboard your aircraft, with points being taken off if you have fewer passengers then what you designed for as stated in the design paper. Each team is given three attempts and the average of all three attempts gives the flight score. The design paper, presentation, and flight scores are then added up to create the team’s final score.

Cyclone Aero Design divides each competition season into two main phases, tracked in a Gantt Chart. The first phase is design, where the CAD model is developed and analyzed, and prototypes are created to test conceptual designs. This is followed by the manufacturing phase, where the full scale plane is assembled and tested for competition. Three system teams of structures, aerodynamics, and propulsion/ control complete conceptual designs over the summer, with an integrations team ensuring compatibility. When the fall semester begins, the teams produce preliminary designs in the first half of the fall semester and perform design validation and further iteration in the second half. Once the design has completed validation, material and vendor lists are compiled to start manufacturing at the beginning of the spring semester.

Each year the competition committee sends out a set of rules to the teams giving them restrictions on how large the aircraft may be, which materials may be used, and many other requirements. For this last competition season (2017-2018), size restrictions of a 12 ft wingspan with a 50 lb total weight were implemented. Power restrictions are also implemented, allowing the use of only one electric motor with a power limit of 1000 watts, which is about how much power a small refrigerator pulls. The most challenging aspect of our design is the restriction on composite materials. Most aircraft designed today are primarily made from composite materials such as carbon fiber or fiberglass because they have a low strength to weight ratio. The new Boeing 787 is a great example of this as 80% of the craft is made out of composite materials. For our craft, we are not allowed to use composites on any part of our plane except for the landing gear. This challenges us as a team to be resourceful and thoughtful in our material choices. To meet this requirement, our craft is manufactured out of predominantly balsa and beech woods as well as foam, ABS plastic, and a very small amount of aluminum. These were chosen meticulously based on the physical properties they hold such as their strength and weight, but also for their ease of manufacturability.

With the restrictions and regulations in mind, Cyclone Aero Design created AD-2. Our aircraft

went through several iterations before our team was satisfied with the design. Upon completion of the design, our team began manufacturing. AD-2 was completed four months later and was built entirely by the Aero design students. AD-2 boasts a 12 ft tapered wing that can create lift of approximately 45 to 50 pounds. From tip to tail, the craft is 8 ft long. Fully loaded with cargo and passengers, our plane weighs 40 pounds. The cargo bay of the plane lies within the fuselage and is covered by the wing, which is detachable for both ease of transport and ease of access to the cargo bay. The entire plane is covered in a monokote plastic, which serves as the skin of our aircraft and helps generate lift. A 1200 watt motor limited down to 1000 watts (as per the rules) drawing power from a six cell lithium polymer battery is used to propel the RC plane. The design of our tail shifted from the previous year’s usage of airfoils to flat plates on the stabilizers. The tail of the plane does not produce lift in steady level flight, so the flat plate acts as the horizontal and vertical stabilizer to produce the required lift to keep the plane steady in the event of yaw or pitching motion. The team also decided to use flaperons on the wings in place of a traditional aileron. This was done to decrease the distance needed for takeoff, as well as to give more roll control when in flight. The vast majority of the parts were cut using a CNC router or laser cutter in order to keep tolerances low and ensure the parts would fit together without some of the issues that appeared in the previous year’s design. Our hard work culminated in an aircraft capable of creating 50 lbs of lift at 32 ft/s while also holding 30 tennis balls (passengers) along with their 15 pounds of cargo.

While engineering in aviation is the main focus of the club, many other disciplines and skills are developed within our students. Many of the tasks we deal with on yearly and day to day basis involve verbal and written communication, time management, and leadership skills. The team consists of a project and technical director, six subteam leaders, and 34 other team member who are all working on different tasks at different times. Keeping everyone on the same page and working towards goals and deadlines requires strong communication skills and planning from everyone on the team. Adding to that, our team must communicate with the four other SAE teams to plan club events and manage time between the teams

on the equipment within the shop. Communication is very important to the success of Cyclone Aero Design at competition. We have to communicate our design effectively to industry experts in a technical presentation at the competition. Our team must also effectively communicate our design in a technical design paper, which is submitted to the competition committee.

Students within our club gain valuable experience in leadership and business as well. As stated earlier, there are eight different leadership positions within the club, each with their own responsibilities. There are two team managers, who oversee the whole team and make sure large scale needs are met, as well as sub-team leads who are more focused and work with smaller groups to get more specified tasks done. Cyclone Aero Design is also completely student fundraised. This means that we call and contact companies looking for sponsorships to run our $10,000 budget. Currently the team has seven sponsors including Gil Haugan Construction, Rockwell Collins, John Deere, and M2 Consulting. Funding goes to the manufacturing of the aircraft, competition expenses, and community outreach activities. Included

in this, we as a team must create budgets for each year and keep track of finances. This gives our members a well-rounded experience that builds upon what they have learned in the classroom.

Cyclone Aero Design has quickly found its home at Iowa State University in the two years since its founding. Our members come from a variety of disciplines and offer new perspectives and talents that have allowed the team to grow and become increasingly more successful. The organization allows students to improve their critical thinking skills, technical design abilities, and communication skills all while providing a hands on learning experience and networking ability with industry professionals. Moving on from the successes of last years season, Cyclone Aero Design is excited to welcome new members with the upcoming school year and ready to tackle the next competition.

Want to learn more about Cyclone Aero Design? Considering supporting the team through a sponsorship or donation? Contact us at saeoutreach@iastate.edu; mention the AviNation article and one of our team members will be in touch.