Military Institute of Science & Technology

Bangladesh
AIAA 2021-22 DBF Competition Proposal

1. Executive Summary
The objective of our 2021-2022 AIAA Design/Build/Fly (DBF) competition proposal is to provide a preliminary
analysis of design, manufacture and testing of an aircraft capable of dispatching environmentally sensitive vaccine vial
packages and syringes.
To accomplish the objective, all the mission requirements have been translated into design requirements. Initially,
a conceptual design is proposed and a preliminary sizing has been done based on the design requirements and sensitivity
study for attaining the maximum score. For deploying the maximum number of vaccine vial packages, a conveyor belt
mechanism is proposed which will remain installed inside the fuselage section. Fabrication of the final aircraft will be
completed after obtaining an optimized design.
Management will be solely responsible for the successful accomplishment of the project. The conceptual design
approach will directly benefit the later design phases with important data like scoring parameter, sensitivity analysis etc. In
completion of design, optimization with better scoring parameter and sensitivity analysis manufacturing planning will be
executed by the manufacturing sub-team to fabricate a prototype aircraft. Then the test planning will be performed by Flight
Test & Performance sub-team for validation of design optimization and after that, the final aircraft for the competition will be
built.

2. Management Summary
2.1 Organization Description
For a successful participation in the DBF 2021-2022, we have formed a team, consisting of a President, a Chief
Engineer, a Project Manager and a Quality Assurance Engineer, who are engaged to provide necessary guidance and
consultation, as well as, to monitor the overall progress of the team. The rest of the team is divided into ten parallel sub-
teams for an even distribution of the workload. Table 1 elaborately discusses the roles and skill sets required for the team
management and each sub-team.

MANAGEMENT MANAGERIAL ROLES REQUIRED SKILLS

President Communication and monitoring team progress Leadership and management qualities
Chief Engineer Consultation and technical supports Communication skill & Technical proficiency
Project Manager Management of project schedule & logistic Management skills and coordination
supports capabilites
Quality Assurance Monitor teams and supervise the quality of Creative mindset and ability to use logic to
Engineer their work identify strength & weakness
Treasurer Acoountable for fundraising & purchasing Expertise in financial sector & budgeting

SUB-TEAMS SUB-TEAM ROLES SUB-TEAM REQUIRED SKILLS

Assessment of aerodynamic characteristics & Better understanding of aerodynamics along
Aerodynamics
flow analysis with technical expertise in flow simulation

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 Validation of systems power requirements & Proficient in propulsion system & simulation
Propulsion
analysis of electric motor thrust
Design and Design and modelling of aircraft major Expertise in available CAD and CFD with fair
Stability Analysis components, along with their stability analysis knowledge on Stability & Control
Structure Gives instruction for fabrication process Expertise in structural integration
Inventory Maintenance of existing inventory & Persistent in supply chain management
arrangement of the forthcoming inventory
requirements.
Flight test and Execution of flight plan and optimization of Knowlegde about aircraft and control theory
performance aircraft performance
Avionics System Control the aircraft avonics system Expertise in electrical circuit & wiring diagram.
Manufacturing Machining and assembling of aircraft parts Expertise in fabricating RC aircraft
Technical Report Documentation of all proposals and design Content writing skills with technical expertise
Writing reports with proper mapping.
Media Covering all social media platforms with well Skilled in photography and videography with
designed pictorial and video illustration. expertise in editing software

Table 1: Sub-teams Roles and Required Skill Sets

2.2 Organizational Hierarchy

Figure 1 represents the total organogram of the
team, where each sub-team works in coordination with
each other to achieve the goals of the team and
remains directly accountable to the Chief Engineer and
the Project Manager.
2.3 Tentative Project Schedule
A tentative project schedule for our team has
been translated into the Gantt Chart, as highlighted in
Figure 2, to make sure that all the goals of the team are
realized on time. This schedule will help us to
reevaluate the whole task plan based on how long a Figure 1: Team Organogram
task might take and availability of resources.

Figure 2: Gantt Chart with Major Milestones

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 2.4 Budget Estimation
Table 2 features the generalized estimation of
our budget for DBF 2021-22 Competition. Our whole
budget has been presented into two major sections:
Estimated cost for Aircraft Fabrication & Flight Test,
and Travelling & Shipping Expenses. Reviewing the
expenditures from the previous competition, a
significant amount of the fund has been allocated for
shipping the aircraft and attending the competition.
The treasurer will be responsible for keeping the sub-
teams from exceeding the allocated budget.

3. Conceptual Design Approach

Table 2: Estimated Budget Breakdown
3.1 Analysis of the Mission Requirements
Figure 3 embodies the basic mission
requirements, as stated in this year’s competition
rules, which expect the participants to develop an
aircraft capable of delivering vaccination components.
This year’s mission score will depend on the
completion of individual missions with an impactful
factor compared to other teams in terms of speed and
payload capacity.

3.2 Translation of Mission Requirements into

Design Requirements
To accomplish each of the missions
successfully, some of the most important aspects,
influencing all the missions must be translated into
.
design requirements. Table 3 illustrates the translation
of these major factors into design requirements. Figure 3: Basic Mission Requirements

Table 3: Translation of Mission Requirements into Design Requirements

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 3.3 Selection of Aircraft Configurations based on Trade-
off Analysis
A trade-off study has been carried out to identify the
most well-balanced and appropriate aircraft configurations
with respect to the mission profile among a set of various
alternative configurations. There has been a number of
pivotal factors which influenced our decision making process
to select those aircraft configurations. Each of these pivotal
factors have been weighed based on its importance to the
mission profile. A culmination of these alternative
configurations and the deciding factors behind each
selected alternatives
selection are highlighted
are featured in Table in
4,golden.
where the selected
alternatives are highlighted in golden.
Table 4: Conceptual Design Matrix of Alternatives
3.4 Sensitivity Analysis of Design Parameters
. Realizing the significance of sensitivity analysis, we
have carried out a sensitivity study on the total score to the
variation in number of payloads carried in each mission by
analyzing the scoring system. As shown in Figure 4, the score
for Mission 1 does not vary with the number of payloads.
However, the scores of both Mission 2 and 3 vary largely with
the number of payloads being carried, where the variable
involved for Mission 2 is number of syringes that the aircraft
can carry and for Mission 3, it is the number of vaccine vial
packages that can be carried and deployed. Another variable
which is introduced for the ground mission is the time taken for
loading and unloading of payloads. The sensitivity analysis Figure 4: Sensitivity Analysis Plot
revealed that the total scoring of the overall competition is
most sensitive to the successful number of laps in Mission 3,
as well as, the total number of payloads carried in Mission 2
and throughout the entire design process the results obtained
from the sensitivity test will govern the design parameters to
maximize the total score.
3.5 Preliminary Sizing of the Aircraft
After performing the sensitivity test, the main focus of our team has shifted
to reduce the empty weight of the aircraft, so that optimum number of payloads can
be carried by the aircraft, which will ensure us good scores during the fly-off. Hence,
we have decided to carry 10 vaccine vial packages for the third mission, which
defines our estimated maximum take-off weight to be nearly 20 lbs. Our calculations
show that a wing with surface area of 11 ft2 is required to achieve a stall speed of 50
ft/s. For our first prototype, we chose our wing aspect ratio to be 6, producing a
Figure 5: Isometric view of the
wingspan of 8.124 ft and a motor power of 3.6 hp is required for take-off.
Aircraft

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4. Manufacturing Planning
4.1 Preliminary Manufacturing Flow
For ensuring an organized manufacturing process, the manufacturing sub-team has agreed to follow the preliminary
manufacturing flow demonstrated in Figure 6

Figure 6: Manufacturing Flow-Chart

4.2 Critical Processes and Technologies Required

For prototype, the Structure sub-team will select materials such as

Balsa wood, Aluminium, ABS filament for 3D printed parts, and Monokote
(to reduce skin friction drag) for different parts of aircraft. Initially the
prototype will made of Depron foam for reducing the cost of testing and
design optimization. After design optimization, technologies such as Laser
cutting, CNC milling, 3D printing, hot wire cutting will be essentially required
for the fabrication process of different components of the final aircraft as
well as the conveyor belt mechanism. On the completion of fabrication of
major aircraft components, fabrication and integration of the payload
deployment mechanism will be required. A small-scale modified conveyor
belt mechanism is proposed in the conceptual design phase as shown in
Figure 7 and will be fabricated by the manufacturing sub-team which can
Figure 7: Vaccine Vial Package
successfully deploy 1 vaccine vial box per lap. Integration of all the major
Deployment Mechanism
aircraft components of the final aircraft will be done according to the
optimized design using screws and adhesives.
5. Test Planning
The goal of test planning is to determine unknown variables and limitations that will be utilized to evaluate the aircraft's
overall performance. The component and ground test plans are completed to test and verify the propulsion and structure
teams' results. Flight tests are carried out to ensure the aerodynamic capability and maximum payload carrying capacity.

Table 5: Test Planning

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