Dr. Jerry Bowman, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Project Objective

Involve a significant number of students in a multi-semester project with intense technical challenges and a well-defined objective: The creation of a solar powered airplane with the goal of indefinite flight.

Meeting the Academic Objective

This mentored education project engaged 61 undergraduate students to contribute to the solution of a significant engineering problem. It covered 6 semesters and allowed for increased interaction and knowledge transfer between underclass and upperclass students. The students had the opportunity to develop leadership and writing skills resulting in a technical paper written and presented at a student conference. The product was a cutting-edge environmentally friendly solar powered airplane that flew for 1 hour and 40 minutes on solar power.

Mentored Learning Environment

During the 2009/10 and 2010/11 school years, students were recruited to work on the BYU Solar Airplane Project. 61 Students registered for a special-topics course (MeEn 595R). An additional 4 students participated in the class without registering, and worked on a volunteer basis.

During the 1st semester, the students were taught basic aircraft design fundamentals. The students each built a radio controlled sailplane and conduct studies focused on the sailplane’s aerodynamics, structure, control, and propulsion. This first semester established a common level of background knowledge among the students.

During the 2nd semester of the course, the students worked as a group to design and build a solar powered airplane. The students divided into specialty teams focused on aerodynamics, structures, control, or power systems. This allowed the students to focus in an area that was interesting to them and to organize the work by dividing it into smaller tasks. The students documented their progress by writing reports. The reports were used in future semesters to help the project advance.

During the 3rd semester, the students were asked to take a leadership roll in the airplane construction and flight test. They were team leaders for one of the specialty teams.

New students were continually recruited to work on the project. Eventually, the group consisted of novice students, workers in specialty teams, and team leaders. This turned out to be an excellent opportunity for mentored learning between the more experienced student team leaders, the team members, and the novices who joined the program.

Students Involved

During the last two years, 61 students were involved in the project. They are listed below.

Achieved Outcomes

One outcome was the coordinated teaching/learning/research with undergraduate students working as a team to solve a significant engineering challenge. The overlap between new and old students facilitated knowledge transfer from semester to semester, resulting in students coming up to speed quicker in the research area and allowing for new learning to occur. The overlap provided a training ground for students to learn leadership skills.

One course requirement was that the students write reports documenting the work of the semester. One student summarized the individual reports and presented the project results at two AIAA Student Conferences held during the springs of 2010 and 2011. The documented work helped transfer knowledge with-in the group of BYU students working on the project and improved the students’ ability to communicate technical ideas. Students also used the subject material for several technical writing class projects.

Another anticipated outcome was the demonstration of indefinite flight. To date, this has not been achieved, but a solar powered plane was flown and achieved an endurance of 1 hour and 40 minutes during the spring of 2011. Below (Fig. 1) is a picture of the airplane, we call SunBeam Magellan, in solar powered flight.

Preparing Students for the Future

BYU is a recognized leader in the area of control of small unmanned aircraft. Many of the students who participated in this activity learned skills that prepared them to work in the aerospace industry after graduation and to pursue graduate studies in this or related areas.

Budget

Project funding were be used to buy hardware to build the airplanes. This included photovoltaic cells, batteries, airplane electronics and structural materials. The funding was also be used to rent BYU vehicles so the students could safely travel to test the airplanes. The progress made and mentored learning achieved could not have been possible without the MEG Grant funding.

Conclusions

This turned out to be an outstanding opportunity to conduct a mentored education project. It allowed undergraduate students to contribute to the solution of a significant engineering problem. It increased interaction and knowledge transfer between underclass and upperclass students. It also helped students develop leadership and writing skills. The results were much more than the environmentally friendly solar powered airplane the students will create.