AME 441: Aircraft Design is divided into three parts of approximately four to five weeks each. Students will spend approximately one month in

• Conceptual Design

Students who have had experience building gas-powered or electric model aircraft, worked with Autocad or Pro-engineer, or used sensors and electronics in model rockets may have a slight edge in this semester's senior design course. On the other hand, all of the students in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame are faced with the same challenge: to design a remote piloted aircraft which can carry a specified payload, take-off on grass in no more than 300 ft., and return and land safely.

The first part of the course, the "paper" design uses all of the spread sheets previously used by University aerospace engineering students. This is a very important part of the course as a portion of the grade for the entire course will be derived by how closely this design predicts the actual performance of the aircraft during flight tests.

• Detailed Design and Fabrication

Once students have an initial concept, they will be required to generate a full set of plans on CAD systems in the departments design labs. In addition to drawings of individual components, they will be required to manufacture many of the parts they need with milling machines, also located in the design labs. Students will be graded on the quality of the drawings, including: detail, completeness, an explanation of the structure of the aircraft, readability, and correct graphic standards.

• Flight Tests

Can it fly? That's the question students hope to answer when they test their aircraft at the South Bend Model Aircraft Club flying field, approximately 30 minutes south of the Notre Dame campus. Each vehicle must pass a flight test that consists of maintaining velocity at a constant altitude and achieving a change in altitude through a minimum of a 100 ft. climb. All planes must feature a fixed main wing; house an electric motor powered by a battery power pack; include an internal cargo which consists of a "sport" propeller, an onboard microprocessor, and a digital radio control system with up to seven channels. During each flight, information from the microprocessor will be transmitted to a laptop computer located on the ground. Flight performance will be analyzed using the data collected during the performance. Each flight will also be video taped for a post-flight analysis.