BMFA University Challenge 2007 Model Airplane Crashes

[vanepico]

The one at 3:11 is the best one :)

[ShootBigBird]

Uni students should stick to getting pissed.

[eldkvisten]

WOOOH NOOOOO 

xD

[ERobert123]

there airplanes are bit odd

[iloveyenpao]

Everything crash is "tail heavy" Just move the c.g forward..then it'll be OK!!

[tonyfong87]

just google, BMFA University challenge, the rules are on their website somewhere

[tonyfong87]

all the aircraft were built from design, so before any geometry was designed or made, calculations were done to find the neutral point, the take of run legnth, range, lift coefficient, max payload, tail plane take of rotation required, stability margin... plenty more than just replicating an existing a/c.

[jamesdl00]

Then why do half of them fly like they are tail heavy?

[jamesdl00]

Just read the rules on their website... adding 3 to 5 kg probably had something to do with it...

[tonyfong87]

Yeah, they do fly a bit odd, but as i mentioned before, the winning aircraft carried 9kg worth of lead shot in the fuselage. Most of the others carried anywhere between 5 and 8kg, so yeah they do fly a bit off sometimes.

[brobholness]

Looks like a few more calculations are needed lol

[tf2k2]

yeah more wings more lift but there are however limits, The relation with lift to mass has a limit, so if u keep sticking extra wings on there will be a point where the lift ur producing isnt overcoming the extra mass of the wing. also the planes are the first planes that any of the students have built, i bet ur first plane didnt have a 3m wing span, being able to lift anywhere near 9kg. Gearboxes were considered but a direct drive was part of the rules to make it more challenging.

[tf2k2]

first, BMFA stands for British Model Flying Association, second congrats with the replica build.. But the a/c seen in the video are designed purely around manual calculations so its inevitable that some crash. The succesful a/cs' also achieved a payload to dry weight ratio of around 2.9, many crashed pushing this limit! Considering that it was limited to a 1HP engine lifting 9kg this makes flying these a/c extremely tedious, the pilots are very experienced model (and often real) plane flyers.

[Muchacho64]

00:26 i wonder what happend.....

[tf2k2]

that was the 'crash investigation' for the aircraft that crashes in 0:50, flutter caused the ailerons to fall off!! The most spectacular crash of the day i think!

[hernanolivier]

c koi c avions en carton ???

[DG121480]

What was the "challenge"? Who were theese people and what was the event?

[tonyfong87]

This was the BMFA University Challenge, objective to achieve as high a Payload to Dry aircraft Weight ratio. All the planes you see are built by students during one semester of their uni course, keeping in mind none of them have had any experience with building model aircraft before. Most people wont appreciate the performance of these things but the winning aircraft carried a payload of around 9kg, the plane itself only weighing about 3.5kg, and powered by a measly 1HP engine.

[DG121480]

AHhh Now it all makes sence THANKS! I guess the fact that some of them even made it off the ground at all was a feat in itself.

[F3Aflyer]

Gee and these are ' Expert pilots ! ' May be the students should just fly the planes instead.

[tonyfong87]

lol, yeah it is a funny vid, but all the crashes seen are due to technical problems, such as flutter in the wings, bits breaking, controls not working. The planes were flown by experienced pilots (RC and Real Aircraft), who were non students.

[rwallage]

@tonyfong87 Experienced pilots do pre-flight checks, both RC and full sized. By the look of it, most models had obvious CG and other balance problems. A pre-flight would have prevented most crashes...

[eyeeye1]

Thrust to weight ratio flying is nearly impossible for a professional stunt R/C pilot.These guy's gave it a heck of a try.They all will be great Aerospace Enginere's some day.Thank you for pushing the envelope.

[hopeso]

A couple of suggestions. Use at least a little dihedral for stability. High aspect ratio doesn't work all that well at this scale. Try a LARS lifter. Use some camber, toe-in and caster on the landing gear and make a deeper fuse to allow a shorter gear. Do a search for the Lazy Bee.

[tonyfong87]

Thanks for the feedback, it was just a semester project during my university course so we wont be rebuilding anytime soon. We did consider things such as dihedral but we just didnt have the time or skill to do the manual work for that. Thanks again

[stearman81n]

R.C. is very rewarding, if you know what your doing, that is.....

[nautiqueaddiction102]

looks to me like some amateur pilots

[Parubhi]

Exactly what was the challenge here?

[tonyfong87]

Universities that entered had to design and build model aircraft to try and achieve the greatest payload to dry aircraft mass ratio. Basically the planes just had to lift loads of weight. It was impressive, our 3kg aircraft lifted near 8kg of metal weight

[standard223443]

what country is that filmed in??

[tonyfong87]

England, Down in York, An airfield called Elvington

[tonyfong87]

Believe it or not there are some that flew on the day :P

[standard223443]

that looks as if its at East fortune

[NMERider]

Looks like graduation day at "The College of Hard Knocks"

[PRICEJAMES]

Err.........smashing!