Penn Aerial Robotics successfully completed its first flight test with its current aircraft model on October 12.

About 20 students showed up for the flight test at 5 a.m. at Cross Keys Airport in New Jersey. The plane, with a flight weight greater than 40 pounds, reached 120 feet in height and 55 miles per hour in speed and was able to land successfully.

The club’s flight test was part of its preparation for the SAE Aeronautical Design Competitionwhich challenges competitors to build an aircraft capable of carrying the largest possible payload with a maximum wingspan of 15 feet.

According to Xiangyu Chen, head of engineering and president of PennAiR, this flight test is particularly impressive because it is the largest aircraft ever built in the club’s history.

“When our plane was taking off, (I saw) everyone going, ‘Oh my God, that’s so cool.’ I was also very proud of the team for what we were all able to achieve,” said Sakshi Lende, engineering senior and PennAiR vice president of operations. “It was super exciting to see that this thing that we all worked on did what it was supposed to do.”

The current model was built last year and PennAiR used it for the first flight of the design competition. The model was able to take off from the ground but did not achieve sustained flight. This year, team members worked on revising the design to achieve a sufficiently long flight time.

Chen, who plays a major role in procurement and management of the project, said he has followed the development of the plane since he arrived as a freshman. He served as mechanical manager during his sophomore year and remained involved with PennAiR throughout his four years as an undergraduate.

“There was some disappointment last year because we weren’t able to get him on quite the trajectory we wanted,” Che said. “There was also encouragement because since COVID there has been a kind of restart of the club.”

Club advisor Siddharth Deliwala, who is director of electrical and systems engineering laboratories, said the performance in the competition gave the team a chance to improve in addition to their work.

Between last year’s competition and this year’s successful flight test, the team made several corrections to their model. Changes included adding a spring to part of the landing mechanism to alleviate ground strike force and redesigning the tail to decrease weight.

Engineering junior Avaniko Asokkumar, vice president of finance and a member of the software and mechanical teams, said the team had a heavy workload in the few weeks leading up to the competition and was happy to have managed to put everything together in time.

“I was pretty proud of how far we had come,” Asokkumar said. “I was really proud to see the plane fly.”

Che was also proud of the success of the flight test, given last year’s disappointment when the plane failed to achieve a sustained flight.

“You can see these things on the computer with data and these simulations at any time. This is the first time this has worked in the physical world,” Che said. “There’s definitely a moment of surprise. Everyone was super excited as we went through all the different measurements and tests we had planned.

Che said this flight test not only established a routine for the club to run flights through checklists, but also established relationships within the club. He added that this flight test will be a step in the club’s progression towards more successful flight tests, the next of which is scheduled for the first week of December.

“We are very excited to build on this foundation and do even better this year,” Che said.

Deliwala noted that one of the strengths of Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science is the opportunity for students to build their own projects within clubs. He said “this type of innovation is irreplaceable” and keeps students motivated while building team spirit.

“That’s what makes engineering exciting,” Deliwala said. “We are fortunate to have a student body that wants to do this despite the crazy homework load. That’s what I’m passionate about so I’m very happy.

Moving forward, the club plans to continue iterating on its current model. The team aims to implement a new design that is expected to reduce weight by 40% and use a new aerodynamic profile with more left to increase payload. The club also plans to expand by creating an autonomous carbon fiber aircraft to compete in another subdivision of the competition this year.

“We are definitely making a lot more progress than in previous years,” Lende said. “I’m very excited to see how the carbon fiber plane works.”

Endi Guo, a second-year engineering student and head of research and development, also shared her confidence in the new projects.

“A lot of smart people work there,” Guo said. “Autonomous flight is a difficult problem, but there are many resources we draw on.”