Illinois teams take 1st and 3rd in AIAA aircraft design competition with very different designs

Aerospace engineering teams from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign won first and third place in this year’s AIAA Undergraduate Team Aircraft Design Competition. Although both teams addressed the identical requirements laid out in the competition RFP, the resulting aircraft designs couldn’t be more different—first place went to a traditional tube and wing design and third place to a blended wing body design.  

This year’s challenge was to design a heavy-lift aircraft to replace aging military cargo aircraft. It must use commercial off-the-shelf engines and be able to carry a 430,000-pound payload in three configurations: 430 troops/paratroops; three Abrams tanks at 71 tons each; or 48 pallets, each weighing 463 pounds. Its unrefueled range could be no less than 2,500 nautical miles, reach a cruise altitude of 31,000 feet, and a service ceiling of 43,000 feet. All this and be deliverable by 2033.

In addition to leading the first-place team, Colin Kinsey’s responsibilities were in mass properties and configuration—both of which were important aspects given the oversized requirements of the challenge.

“One of the things that surprised us was how difficult it was to meet the service ceiling requirement—the point at which the aircraft’s climb reduces to 100 feet per minute,” Kinsey said. “Because it was such a large aircraft, there was a lot of drag. So being able to produce enough thrust at that altitude with the reduced performance you get from high-bypass turbo fans at those higher altitudes, was a challenge.”

Kinsey’s team designed their aircraft to be about 30 percent larger in volume than a C-5, which is close to being able to carry the required volume, but without enough floor space to fit 48 pallets.

“We had to estimate the weight of the components and how the weight would be distributed both on the ground and in flight,” he said. “Being a military aircraft, it has to be able to drop cargo, drop paratroopers, so we had to make sure the center of gravity is in the right position throughout every regime.”

For example, to determine the best placement for the three tanks, the team found the most restrictive center of gravity positions for each of the other cargo.

“So, if you had a full pallet load that was front loaded versus rear loaded we calculated those different CGs to find the load limit for the front landing gear. That was related to the pressure you can put on the tires we chose. After we had those limits, we put a balance for where the tanks could be located.”

Kinsey said the hardest issue was integrating the aerodynamics and engine decisions into the overall aircraft design and allowing for the three different payload configurations.

“It took a long time to get something nailed down so we could move forward with some other disciplines that were reliant on those decisions. We had to work in parallel as much as we could, because so much of it relies on previous information. As team lead, I had to make sure everyone had something they could work on while waiting for new calculations or new design characteristics.”

Kinsey said the team did a rough initial sizing a blended wing concept like several of the other teams his class chose to design.

“It’s a more novel approach and theoretically more fuel efficient so we considered it,” he said. “Ultimately, we didn’t think we’d have the data to back up making the decisions we’d need to make and produce a new-concept aircraft within the six-year timeline.”

The students on Team Hummingbird's entry, “Chipmunk,”  included: Colin Kinsey, team lead and mass properties: Avery Beinhauer, stability and control; Anna Marie Buss, loads and dynamics; Aryan Dawra, aerodynamics and systems; Jakub Mitka, structures; Divyansh Ojha, systems and performance; and Zachary Werth, propulsion.

Matt Brotnow led the team that placed third with a blended wing body design.

Brotnow said after making preliminary calculations that showed a dramatic reduction in fuel weight, the team’s decision to pursue a blended wing body was motivated by the desire to design something new.

“We knew from the onset that a BWB design might mean a little more work, but we were willing to do that work to create a unique, innovative design that still satisfied the RFP,” Brotnow said. “It meant starting from scratch on a lot of the nitty-gritty design work.”

He said the large cargo bay requirements led to a few unique challenges. The existing weight estimations and structural layouts for BWB designs typically don’t allow for such a large opening.

“Jackson Long, who was responsible for systems and mass properties, even wrote a custom finite element analysis code to evaluate the truss-like structure on the sides of the main cargo bay,” Brotnow said.

Brotnow said, as the team leader a lot of his growth was more personal than technical.

“I helped on a wide variety of technical issues, helping other team members troubleshoot their own issues, but a lot of my time was spent learning how to run a team. I was lucky to be leading a very functional and self-sustaining team, but I still learned a lot about how to motivate different people on the project, how to mash different working styles together, and how to ensure good communication among the whole team,” he said.

In the senior design class, Professor Jason Merret uses the first semester to help students build the skills they’ll need to design an airplane. He incorporates some of the specific knowledge and tools they’ll need for AIAA’s annual design parameters into some of the class assignments. Students are asked to rank the top three roles they’d prefer to play on the design team. Merret uses that information to balance the teams, making sure every team has someone interested in each of the roles.

Both Brotnow and Kinsey praised the other members of their teams and how well they worked together. 

“Everyone was extremely supportive of the other team members, helping them not only navigate technical problems, but also getting to know each other well by the end of the semester,” Brotnow said. “The entire group was motivated to do well, and I think a big reason why we were able to do so well was because of the great dynamic within the team.”

The students on Team Kinglet's entry, “Gravibus,” included: Matt Brotnow, team lead; Eduardo Martinez, aerodynamics; Vincent Ma, structures; Jackson Long, systems and mass properties; Lucas Smerica, propulsion; Cynthia Sigamony, performance; Yesung Jeon, loads and dynamics; and Daniel Zapata, stability and control.

Brotnow is currently a master’s degree student at Illinois with Phil Ansell as his adviser. He said the experience of being the team lead gave him confidence in his decision to go to grad school. “Throughout the project, I was exposed to many facets of the airplane design process, and I was able to really see where I might fit in the future.”

Kinsey is currently in his first six-month rotation as a product engineer at Howmet Aerospace in Whitehall, Michigan.

“Our team really clicked,” he said. “Everyone was set on finishing their task. They were very willing to contribute to conversations, but they were also willing to hear criticism about their ideas. They wanted the best design, not their design, which I think is the most important part. It’s having people who are committed to producing good work with a final product that’s better than any of us could have done alone.”