Silverwing, a TU Delft student team, is one of the five winners of the second round of the GoFly competition, sponsored by Boeing. For the competition, participants have to design a single-seater aircraft that must be able to take off and land vertically. In addition, the design must also meet various safety and noise requirements. With the win, the students are among the top five participants and will now actually build the design and fly it in the fly off.
Test stands
For the second round, several test rigs were created to gain experience in building a self-developed aircraft. One of the test fixtures is a half-scale prototype of the vehicle. This prototype can currently fly vertically and autonomously.
The expertise gained has been incorporated into a technical report for the second round. "For us, testing often and as early as possible is the key to success in the GoFly competition," says James Murdza, team manager of Silverwing. Based on the report, Silverwing has been selected as one of the five winners of the second round. The winners will receive $50,000 each.
Design
The developed prototype, can take off and land vertically but eventually the final product should also fly horizontally. The students' design is all-electric and should be capable of autonomous flight. The aircraft is powered by high-energy density batteries.
According to the students, the large wing should efficiently provide the aircraft with lift during horizontal flight, while the small front wing provides control and stability. The team's design would make 87dB of noise, comparable to a motorway 15 metres away.
The team aims to use two large tunnelled propellers to optimise efficiency and minimise noise. Ultimately, the students aim to achieve a top speed of more than 140 km/h during horizontal flight, with also enough thrust for a controlled vertical take-off and landing.
Safety
Safety is one of the team's main concerns. The students' design includes a protective cabin, a low-power backup system and can perform a belly landing in case of emergency. "We automate flight procedures and manoeuvres wherever possible to make our vehicle more reliable," said Ralph Krook, the team's chief aircraft controller.
In June 2018, a small group of TU Delft students participated in the first round of the competition. Out of more than 600 participants, Silverwing was selected as one of the 10 winners. The team then quickly grew to 34 students, from different backgrounds. This team will further develop the vehicle and travel to the US in 2020 for the fly off.
The GoFly competition was created to encourage innovation within aviation. The prize consists of three phases: a conceptual design phase, a detailed design phase and a final fly off, in early 2020.
Anyone is free to apply to design and produce a flying machine. Silverwing is now busy producing the real vehicle with which they will participate in the fly off. In this, the aircraft must take off vertically, cover an 11-kilometre course and then land vertically again. Points are also awarded for low noise, small size and speed. The team that wins the fly-off will get $1 million.
Whatever the competition will produce, Silverwing will present its first single-seater plane on 30 April anyway.
Source: TU Delft/Silverwing
