VALENCIA, 25 Apr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The ‘Stingray’ aircraft, from the Spontaneous Generation program of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) has achieved a “historic achievement” by taking second place in the absolute general classification in the SAE Aero Design West of Texas (United States), the “most prestigious international competition in the world in the advanced category”.
In the test, co-organized by the American multinational Lockheed Martin, 72 teams representing 12 countries participated. The first prize corresponded to the aircraft of the University of Wroclaw (Poland), with a budget four times higher than that of the UPV team, underlines the Valencian institution in a statement.
The six flight tests at the Thunderbird RC airfield (Fort Worth, USA) consisted of several flights of the main aircraft and deploying a secondary aircraft (PADA) with autonomous flight from it. This, in addition, had to land in a certain area, a very ambitious electronic challenge and a lot of coordination.
The weather conditions were not favorable to Stingray during his competition time, with wind gusts of up to 30 knots (55 kilometers per hour). This caused a landing gear failure in the UPV team aircraft upon entering the runway in the second flight test.
The team, which unlike other formations and for budgetary reasons did not have several replicas of the prototype, worked piecemeal, with great pressure and against the clock to solve this incident. Finally, his work was rewarded with the second position in the absolute competition and two additional prizes: (3rd in Technical Report and 3rd in Performance).
32 students from various UPV degrees have participated in the development of Stingray. Ten members traveled to the United States representing the entire team: Juan Carlos Miralles, Laia Torres, Pablo Norczyk, Mercedes Boyero, Guillermo Cirilo, Carla Conejero, Sergio Gil, Ignacio Esparza, Jorge Modesto and the pilot Pablo Flor, one of the best in the world in freestyle
The team has had the full support of the UPV, headed by Esther Gómez Vice-Rector for Students and Entrepreneurship and Fanny Collado, Director of Spontaneous Generation and seventeen sponsors: Higher Technical School of Design Engineering, Institute of Thermal Engines, Ministry of Sustainable Economy , Productive Sectors, Commerce and Labor of the Generalitat Valenciana, Clipcarbono, Castro Composites, RC Innovations, Decoman, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials, Siemens, nTopology, Ansys, Einhell, ONKLUB, Symula and the trip has been managed by Viajes Vulcano.
The team, supervised by professors Pedro Quintero and Andrés Tiseira, has been led by students from the Higher Technical School of Design Engineering: Juan Carlos Miralles, Laia Torres and Pablo Norczyk and Mercedes Boyero from the Higher Technical School of Telecommunications Engineering .
The creators of Stingray have tried to innovate in many aspects, such as reducing the environmental impact of their creations through generative design that allows to lighten the amount of materials used and decreases the net carbon footprint during the useful life of the aircraft.
