The 2006-2007 year brought a very interesting and fun year to Virginia Tech Design Build Fly. The mission for this year was simulating a UAV with two “sensor” payloads. One payload was an air sampler, which consisted of a tube that had to protrude from the front of the aircraft and an 8″x8″x8″ processor element. The other payload was a camera ball which had to protrude from the bottom of the aircraft and had a 4″x6″x15″ processor element. Due to wingspan being a big factor in scoring, the VT team decided to design a biplane. This was a new experience for us and took a lot of research (a lot of it dating back to the early days of flight!).
The resulting aircraft was named the Maroon Baron. At competition we placed 11th out of 50 teams. We were one of 7 teams that completed all the ground and air missions. Overall, Maroon Baron flew amazingly well and performed all the flight attempts without one mishap. See the pictures of the Baron at competition in the gallery!