Approaching Stanford Flight Club

Approaching Stanford Flight 2022 - 2023 Club

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Club History Club History

Stanford Flight Club was founded in 2014 (originally called SUAVE) by eight aerospace undergraduates, graduates, and alumni seeing the need for hands-on, applied aerospace engineering on campus. Since then, the program has expanded into a much broader scope. Stanford Flight Club welcomes students from any major with interest in aviation, engineering, or a desire to try something new.Through student lead project teams, members learn crucial skills for academia and industry.Activities include participation in intercollegiate competitions, providing funding and tools for student lead projects, and providing partnerships with research labs and aerospace companies.

Project Teams Design, Build Fly (DBF) • THE intercollegiate aircraft design competition • Design, manufacture, and fly an unmanned electric aircraft against 100 other university teams Solar Plane • Design, build, and fly the world’s longest flying solar powered unmanned aircraft • Autonomous coast-to-coast flight with travel for testing Balloonerang • Collaboration between SSI Balloons and Flight Club • Design an autonomous balloon payload recovery system leveraging flight autonomy, parachute ejection systems, and long range radio AUVSI • Compete in the 2023 AUVSI SUAS competition with international teams • The aircraft will perform autonomous pathfinding, obstacle avoidance, image detection and classification, localization and mapping, package drop, takeoff and landing Human Aviation • Provides support to prospective and licensed pilots with flying events, ground school studying, mentorship, and flight training support • A community for pilots to share their love of flying

Getting Involved Stanford Flight Club is proud to be open to all students, without requiring an application, dues, or minimum time commitment. All projects are designed to be inclusive of members regardless of previous experience.

The best way to get involved in Flight Club is to join one of our projects.To do so, check our calendar for meeting times, see us at a Fly Day, and join us on Slack.Visit flightclub.stanford.edu for instructions and links.

Design, Build, Fly Design-Build-Fly (DBF) is an exciting intercollegiate competition where teams from all over the world design, build, and (you guessed it!) fly unmanned electric aircraft in a noholds-barred contest of engineering prowess, ingenuity, and not-crashingability. Running from October through April, the Design-Build-Fly competition sees over 100 university teams create high-performance aircraft designed from the ground up to tackle realworld challenges– from remote vaccine deliveries to aerial reconnaissance and surveillance.

printers, and other industry materials and equipment? DBF has it all. Maybe you just want to see something you built with your own hands take gracefully to the skies.Well, we feel the exact same way! No matter your interests, there is a place for you in DBF.

Beyond just the real-world experience, this project will also help catapult your engineering career like an F-18 off an aircraft carrier. Design-Build-Fly is organized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the nation’s definitive aerospace By joining this project team, students professional organization.As such, it is will experience the entire aircraft recognized and respected by schools, development lifecycle from companies, and aerospace professionals requirements and initial concept all over the world and is contested by through flight test and operation. Ever universities ranging from MIT to Embry wonder why some planes utilize a low- Riddle to the University of New South wing configuration while others favor a Wales. DBF is a fantastic way to high-wing set up? Learn about network with fellow engineering aerodynamics and aircraft students and experts alike, build up configurations as we make these same your resume, and fly circles around the decisions developing our own aircraft. competition!

Interested in working with carbon fiber composites, CNC machines, 3D We’ll see you at the flight line.

Solar Plane The need for sustainable aviation is greater than ever. The Stanford Solar Airplane Project gives students handson experience building a record breaking solar powered electric airplane with the eventual goal of flying, continuously and autonomously, coast to coast in the US. This ambitious goal will require ambitious students to design, prototype, and test multiple prototypes at multiple stages of the engineering process.

The project is divided into three milestones: avionics testbed, aerodynamic scale model, and final fullscale model. The current, ambitious, timeline is to fly the avionics and aerodynamic models in winter 2023, and to fly the final full-scale model at the end of spring 2023. This is a very short timeline for a very complex problem. Students will need to be highly motivated, organized, decisive, deliberate, and executing.

The final airplane will be entirely solar powered, fully autonomous, and highly robust. A preliminary estimate indicates a wingspan of 200 inches.

The aircraft will be designed from scratch by students. The high aspect ratio wings will be made of carbon fiber laminates.

The avionics will be tightly integrated with the airframe and comprehensive, recording and submitting telemetry via satellite, 4G, or long range radio. The control system will be advanced, allowing crews to operate the aircraft safely for long periods of time. Mission Control displays will show telemetry data, controls, weather, and other mission data. These systems and others will be designed by students and reviewed by professors and other industry leaders.

Students will have the opportunity to undergo a rigorous engineering program experience from ideation to design review to construction and testing. The process will be thoroughly reviewed and documented giving students critical skills in academic writing and presentation. It is expected that students who participate in the program will be acquainted with and educated on a large number of skills required for work in the aerospace and other related industries.

Students will network with professors, companies, and other engineers making important connections and contributions with this research.

Students will have made a meaningful impact on the future of aviation and sustainability.

Balloonerang Balloonerang is a joint project between SSI Balloons and the Flight Club that addresses the problem of balloon payload recovery. Most balloon payloads that SSI launches are lost when the balloon bursts and falls back to the ground.These losses can be costly given the various sensors and radios that usually make up a standard balloon payload.

Balloonerang aims to address this challenge by creating a glider to house the payload and autonomously land it in a predefined, accessible location – usually near a road or town.This glider will automatically cut-down from the balloon before it bursts and then navigate to a landing site. Real-time telemetry data can be received using an onboard radio communicating with the Iridium

Low-orbit satellite network which SSI’s servers can be linked to.As the glider approaches its destination, an altitude-triggered parachute will deploy to slow the descent rate.

This is a highly ambitious project.

Currently the program is focusing on developing a robust parachute deployment system as well as a glider fuselage. Prototyping these components will not only benefit Balloonerang, but will be a useful technology for other SSI Balloons and Flight Club projects.The program welcomes anyone interested in the fields of electrical engineering, computer science, and aerospace/mechanical engineering to take on a key role in this endeavor.

Our onboarding will focus on the glider design process. No prior experience is required.

Project Grants Project grants support members pursuing interests not already covered by one of Flight Club’s projects. In the past these have included buying drones, building an RC plane kits, and designing a massive cardboard airplane. Grants can be applied for any time, and are awarded year round. Projects can be for individuals or groups of any size, and members not already in Flight Club are welcome to join on the project.

To apply, fill out a form with a few questions on the project.The leadership team will review and award research grants to pursue the project.There are no limits on the amount of funding students can request or what one can purchase, so long as it’s in support of Flight Club’s goal of supporting aerospace and aviation.

AUVSI “The competition requires students to design, integrate, report on, and demonstrate a UAS capable of autonomous flight and navigation, remote sensing via onboard payload sensors, and execution of a specific set of tasks.The competition has been held annually since 2002.

The competition focuses on Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) performing autonomous missions. Many of the tasks require autonomy to be eligible, and others receive more points for autonomy.”

Students will develop an aircraft to compete in the 2023 AUVSI SUAS Competition, which draws teams from all over the world.

Students will gain experience following a highly rigorous development schedule and process.

Skills sought after are leadership, teamwork, project management of large scale projects, fundraising, CAD, CAM, programming, electronics systems design, flight testing, radio engineering, soldering, machining, composites layup, and many more. It is expected that students who participate in the program will be acquainted with and educated on a large number of skills required for work in the aerospace and other related industries. Students will network with professors, companies, and other engineers making important connections and contributions with this research. Students will have made a meaningful impact on the future of autonomous flight.

Aviation Stanford Flight Club seeks to promote general aviation interest within the Stanford community.

Students interested in pursuing private pilots licenses as well as existing licensed pilots of all levels can connect and form a community. We provide support to pilots of all levels such as study sessions, mentors, discovery flights, guidance in one’s training, and more. This includes events such as fly-ins, group flights, airshows, and museum visits.

Workspace Our workspace is open to all safety-trained Flight Club members! Located in Stanford’s Cedar Hall near the engineering quad, Flight Club's home base is here to help students turn your ideas into reality. Equipment includes 3D printers, raw materials, plane parts, and a laser cutter.

All Stanford students are welcome to visit cedar hall during team meetings.

Members active on a project can get 24 hour access by completing the following: 1.

Complete the safety tour. This is usually done during your first visit, just a brief walkthrough of how to work safely

2.

Complete EHS-4200 and EHS-1900 STARS training (send a message in slack for assistance finding and completing these required trainings)

3.

Complete the form on flightclub.sites.stanford.edu/cedar

4.

Receive the Cedar Hall access code via slack once all the paperwork is complete

5.

Additional training is available to grant use to specialized equipment and processes such as CNC machines and composites processing.

Fly Days Fly days are a great way to destress after a busy week, soak up some Saturday sun, socialize with other students, and hone your skills as a model aircraft pilot.

They're also when project teams and experimental designers come to test their aircrafts, occasionally accompanied by a spectacular crash. All students, regardless of affiliation with Flight Club, are welcome to attend Fly Days and learn to fly with the assistance of an experienced pilot. Fly days are held biweekly on Saturdays at 10am and are posted on the calendar on the Flight Club website.

Join Stanford Flight Club for the

Kickoff Fly Day Saturday October 8th, 2022 4:00pm - 6:00pm Lake Lagunita • • • •

Learn about engineering, aerospace, and aviation Fly remote controlled airplanes (No experience necessary!)

Meet Stanford's pilot community Free food & fun

Scan for directions