First Place : Georgia Institute of Technology Team ThereWillBeBuzz
The DBF (Design/Build/Fly) Competition is an annual, international competition sponsored by Cessna Aircraft Co/Raytheon Missile Systems and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The Fly-off for the 15th Competition was held at TIMPA Field in Tucson, AZ on the weekend of April 15-17, 2011.
Teams were tasked with designing, building and flying an unmanned, lightweight aircraft that is capable of delivering supplies to frontline troops. Of the record 94 entries this year, 82 teams submitted written reports to be judged. 70 teams attended the fly-off, all of which completed the technical inspection.
Over 700 students, faculty, and guests were present. The weather was sunny and warm allowing for non-stop flying. Of the 207 official flight attempts, 133 resulted in a successful score divided among 55 teams. Thirty-three teams successfully completed all three missions. The quality of the teams, their readiness to compete, and the execution of the flights continues to improve each year. This year’s requirement to pre-inspect the airplanes with an advisor before the competition sped up the technical inspections and expedited teams getting to a flight attempt.
The contest theme this year was a Soldier Portable UAV. The airplane had to fit in a commercially available suitcase meeting airline carry-on requirements. The first mission was a “dash to critical target” with no payload followed by an Ammo Re-supply mission (steel bar payload) and a Medical Supply mission (golf balls). As usual, the total score is the product of the flight score and written report score.
First Place and a cash prize of $2,500 went to the Georgia Institute of Technology Team ThereWillBeBuzz. Second Place and a priz of $1,500 went to University of Southern California Team The RFB and Third Place ans $1,000 went to Purdue University Team Golfstream. The Best Paper Award, sponsored by the Design Engineering TC for the highest report score, went to Technion University Team GolfiTech with a score of 98.50.
Full Results available here
Source: aiaadbf