<< WEEK 3

2004-07-12, Monday
Jessa Lee
Julia Lee

The membrane team spent the morning finishing constructing a set of wings for the three-foot model using aluminum-tubing frame covered with a rip-stop polyester membrane. Later in the day, the team began to brainstorm ideas about how to create a set of wings with a six-foot span. Because carbon fiber is lighter and stiffer than aluminum tubing, they decided to build the wing using a carbon fiber frame covered with a polyester membrane.
The mechanical support team spent the morning designing the body for the glider with a six-foot wingspan. They also helped the design team find pre-designed airfoils with Reynolds numbers between 60,000 and 90,000 so that Axel could analyze them and choose one to optimize the glider design.
Meanwhile, the design team split into two groups. One group worked on designing a wing with a six-foot wingspan while the other group spent the day creating a spreadsheet to calculate aspect ratios, trim speeds, and Reynolds numbers using detailed wing and fuselage specifications.

2004-07-13, Tuesday
Erica McCay
Daniela Buchman

The day started off with a meeting about the mid term presentation to take place the following Monday. Sections were assigned to each high school team member so that each person was to talk for about 3 minutes. Then, the students broke into their respective groups and quickly discussed the plan for the rest of the day.
The stable glider groups made calculations and tested out some new ideas for the glider. The mechanical design group continued carving the head out of a block of foam and helped the membrane group get the wings for the 3’ glider attached. The membrane group finished their 3’ glider and started designing their 6’ glider.
It was a very productive day and it was exciting to see the positive response to the SF Chronicle article about the project.

2004-07-14, Wednesday
Luis Torres
Benjamin Sanders

The day started off with a meeting where Arthur talked to the team about the mid-term presentation, and that every team member had to turn in a outline of what they were going to say. After that, every team member went back to his/her design team and kept advancing the status of the 2-meter wingspan glider. The stable glider team kept making calculations to further their research and help make their glider become more stable. The mechanical team finally finished a fuselage made out of foam. And the membrane team attached their 3-foot membrane to a fuselage, but did not show good results, so went back to designing another glider. Near the end of the day PJ emailed everyone a standard slide for the presentation, and everybody had to design his/her own slide.

2004-07-15, Thursday
Eric Meltzer
Marianne Kvitko

Today the different teams all were working on designs for different elements of their gliders. Axel, Nicki, Ben, PJ, and Eric went to AeroMicro hobby shop, and bought servos, control horns, and other control elements of the gliders. They looked at transmitters, but did not buy one, because of the need for the perfect transmitter that will work for all our gliders. (Because we haven’t finalized a design we don’t know channel requirements etc.) By the time they got back from AeroMicro, it was almost 3:00. We messed around with the flying wings, and then it was time to leave.

WEEK 5 >>