2016NATIONAL WING DESIGN COMPETITION RULES
These competition rules are modeled after the rules for the international AIAA Design/Build/Fly competition, which can be found at .
The competition rules may be changed or supplemented at any time.
Notification of any rule changes or clarifications will be disseminated via email to teachers or team liaisons andposted at:
Contents
Contents
Summary of Changes
Competition Summary
Judging
Competition Site
Team Requirements
Schedule
Communications
Aircraft Requirements
General
Safety
Scoring
Design Challenge
General
Payloads
Flight Line Order
Mission
General Mission Specifications
Flight Course
Contingencies
Report Guidelines
Design Report:
Design Report Electronic Copy:
Appendix A: Airfoil Ordinates
Appendix B: Eppler 422 Airfoil Characteristics
Appendix D: Martin Hepperle 114 Airfoil Characteristics
Appendix E: NACA 62(1)-212 Airfoil Characteristics
Appendix F: Selig/Donovan 7043 Airfoil Characteristics
Appendix G: USA-35B Airfoil Characteristics
Appendix H: PVC Pipe Dimensions
Payload 1
Payload 2
Payload 3
Payload 4
Summary of Changes
The format of this year’s competition has changed. Please read the rules carefully and be aware of all changes. The following document changes from the previous year’s competition:
- Competition Summary: Design report due date
- Competition Site: Competition date
- Schedule: Design report due date
- Communications: New website where information will be posted
- Aircraft Requirements: All payloads must be mounted on wing; Mounting hardware that counts towards wing weight limited to non-removable components; website location for self-inspection checklist changed
- Scoring: Two separate Flight Scores may be recorded for each of two unique payloads; Report Score will be scaled from 100 to 20 points max; Student pilot bonus increased to 10%
- Design Challenge: Mission changed drastically to a multi-role payload mission; 2 out of a predetermined set of 4 unique payloads will be flown during the competition
- Payloads: Four unique payloads are detailed and must be supplied by the team; At their discretion, teams may also supply their own additional “counterweight” payloads
- Mission: Each team must supply student or non-student volunteers to serve 30-minute rotations as Flight Course spotters
- Contingencies: Teams may only use one competition wing to record valid Flight Scores even if a second wing is identical to the first
- Report Guidelines: Design report due date
Competition Summary
The National Wing Design Competition (NWDC) is sponsored by the National Air & Space Education Institute (NASEI) and is intended to provide an introduction to aircraft design. The University of Kentucky College of Engineering and NASA have provided support for this year’s NWDC. Engineering firms such as Stantec, Lockheed Martin and Belcan will also support the NWDC. Student teams will design, fabricate, and demonstrate the flight capabilities of a wing to replace the stock Hobbico® NexSTAR™ wing.
The goal of the competition is to design and build a high-performance wing, while demonstrating a balance between practical-and-affordable manufacturing techniques and good flight characteristics. The design objective is to produce a multi-role wing that, when mounted on the NexSTAR™ fuselage is light weight, and can carry a diverse array ofnon-uniform payloads at a distance from the center of gravity of the aircraft. The wing must be capable of carrying different specified payloads non-concurrently. Scoring for each sortie is a function of the position of the particular external payload with respect to a fixed point on the NexSTAR™ fuselage and the overall weight of the wing.
It is the responsibility of each team to know and follow all rules, updates, and competition day briefings. In the aircraft industry, deadlines are common and meeting these deadlines is extremely important. Thus, all competition deadlines will be enforced with a graduated score reduction penalty outlined here in the “Schedule” and “Report Guidelines” sections. Also, teams are required to submit a Design Report that describes the design process. The Intent of the report is to represent a wing “proposal” explaining the team’s design choices including cost-benefit analyses, tradeoffs, optimizations, etc. The reports are not explanations of test results and can be comprehensively written before flight testing even begins. However, if flight tests are accomplished before the due date, observations of results may be included in the report. Reports are due Friday, April 29, 2016.
Judging
Each team must design, document, build, and fly a competition wing. Flight Scores will be based on the demonstrated mission performance obtained during the competition.
Each team must submit a Design Report describing their design and outlining their proposed construction process. A maximum of 20 points will be awarded for the Design Report. Reports will be scored by a panel of aerospace industry professional engineers and professors.
The overall team score is the product of the Report Score and Flight Score.
Competition Site
The exact competition date and location is to be determined, although it is tentatively scheduled for Saturday May 14 2016 at Lake Cumberland Regional Airport in Somerset, KY.The competition location and schedule will be posted on the NASEI website, and all teams will be notified of changes via e-mail. To obtain atmospheric data for flight planning and design purposes, you can check historical weather conditions at or
Team Requirements
All team members (except for a non-student pilot) must be NASEI students. Teams may use a non-student pilot if desired. All pilots (student or non-student) must be AMA members and must perform the technical inspection of their team’s aircraft and complete a signed proof of flight form prior to the competition.
Each school may enter only one team. Each team must have its own airframe. This consists of a fuselage, tail, landing gear, propulsion system, and receiver. Each wing has a total spending limit of $700 dollars. Each team is eligible to be reimbursed for up to $350 of these expenses by NASEI. Valid expenses may be invoiced to NASEI by submitting itemized receipts along with a written explanation of items purchased to the following address by May 14, 2016.
National Air & Space Education Institute
2720 Cannons Lane, Hangar 7
Louisville, KY40205
Schedule
Design Reports must be submitted to by 5pm eastern daylight time on April 29, 2016. No corrections, additions, or changes can be made after submission. Teams must submit one electronic copy of their Design Report in PDF format.
A 5% reduction in score will be applied every 24 hours to reports submitted after the 5pm April 29 deadline. For example, the maximum possible score for a report submitted at 6pm on April 30 will be 90%.
The competition is tentativelyscheduled forMay 14, 2015. The competition is anticipated to run from 9am to 3pm.A final competition schedule will be e-mailed to the teams prior to the competition date and posted on the NASEI web page. If the competition is postponed due to weather, then the competition will be rescheduled and the same competition schedule will be followed.
Communications
The competition administrators will maintain a website as a resource for downloading the latest information regarding the competition. This website can be found at:
Questions regarding the competition may be sent to the competition administrators by e-mail at:
All correspondence with the competition administrators should include a team name and school name. All questions and answers will be entered periodically into FAQs and posted on the competition website.
Aircraft Requirements
General
- The wing design may be of any form except a flapping wing configuration.
- The wing must be separable from the aircraft.
- All payloads must be mounted to the wing; not to the aircraft fuselage. Any payload mounting hardware that is not removable will count as wing weight. For example, if payloads are mounted on a threaded bolt that is integral to the wing frame and secured with a wing nut, then the bolt counts as wing weight, but the wing nut does not.
- Any lifting body added to the original NexSTAR™ airframe counts as a wing and must be removable. For example, if a bi-plane design is used, both wings must be removable.
- All parts used to attach the wing to the airframe count toward the weight of the wing. For example, if a main spar is used to secure the wing to the airframe, then it counts toward the weight of the wing (even if part of it lies inside the fuselage).
- Wing struts count as part of the wing and must be removable.
- No structure or components may be dropped from the aircraft during flight.
- No form of externally assisted take-off is allowed. All energy for take-off must come from the unmodified O.S. Engine included in the kit.
- Engine fuel must be 10% Nitro-methane.
- Each aircraft must use a commercially made propeller provided in the kits (replacement propellers may be purchased if necessary).Teams may modify the propeller by clipping the tipsor painting the blades for balance. Other modifications are not allowed.
- Aircraft and pilot must be Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) legal. This means:
- The aircraft take-off gross weight with payload must be less than 55-lbs.
- The pilot must be a member of the AMA.
- Complete AMA Aircraft Safety Code can be found at:
- THE COMPETITION AIRCRAFT MUST BE FLOWN PRIOR TO THE COMPETITION. TEAMS MUST SUBMIT THE PROOF OF FLIGHT FORM SIGNED BY AN AMA MEMBER, AS WELL AS A PHOTOGRAPH OR VIDEO OF THE AIRCRAFT IN FLIGHT IN ORDER TO FLY IN THE COMPETITION.
Safety
Proof of flight of the NexSTAR™ platform with the competition wingMUST be verified by the competition organizers prior to being able to fly. This requirement is to ensure competition safety. Aircraft without the signed proof of flight form will not be allowed to fly at the competition. All decisions made by judges are final.
All aircraft will be self-inspected prior to each test flight and competition flight by the team’s AMA certified pilot. The purpose of this inspection is to ensure the safety of all people and the aircraft. Aircraft deemed unsafe will not fly.
The quick pre-flight self-inspection checklist is posted on the WDC website at In detail, the inspection will consist of the following:
-Brief review of key structural points of aircraft
-Wing tip test: Aircraft with full flight payload will be lifted from a lift point at each wing tips (to roughly simulate a 2.5g load case) to verify adequate strength and to check for vehicle center of gravity (cg) location. Teams should mark the expected empty and loaded cg locations on the exterior of the aircraft. Special provisions should be made for aircraft whose cg does not fall within the wing tip chord so the aircraft can be secured while performing the wing tip test.
-Radio range check (motor on and motor off) and fail safe check. All aircraft radio transmitters must have a fail safe mode, which is automatically selected if the receiver loses signal from the radio transmitter. The fail safe should be demonstrated on the ground by switching off the transmit radio. During failsafe the aircraft receiver must select Throttle Closed.
-Physical Inspection:
- Verify all components are adequately secured to vehicle. Verify all fasteners are tight and have either safety wire, locktite (fluid) or nylock nuts. Clevises on flight controls must have an appropriate safety device to prevent disengaging in flight.
- Verify the structural integrity of the propeller and ensure proper propeller attachment.
- Visual inspection of electronic wiring to assure adequate wire gauges and connectors.
- Verify all control surfaces move correctly.
- Check the integrity of the payload and payload attachment system.
Any minor damage sustained during a flight attempt may be repaired. However, an aircraft must be re-inspected by the team’s AMA certified pilot after repairs before being cleared to fly.
Scoring
Each team's score will be computed from the Report Score andFlight Scoreusing the formula:
Score = Report Score * [(Flight Score A) + (Flight Score B)] * 1.1 (Student Pilot Bonus)
There are 4 unique predetermined payloads that each team may be asked to fly in the 2016 competition. These payloads are detailed in the following section. At the beginning of the competition, 2 of the 4 payloads will be randomly selected. Each team will have a maximum of two attempts to complete a successful flight carrying both of the 2 selected payloads non-concurrently (two attempts for payload 1 and two attempts for payload 2).Flight Scores A is awarded for a successful flight carrying payload 1. Flight Score Bis awarded for a successful flight carrying payload 2. If a team is unable to complete a successful flight carrying either payload, a Flight Score of zero will be recorded for that payload. If a team is unable to complete a successful flight of either of the two selected payloads on the day of the competition, their overall score will also be zero per the equation above.
The Flight Score equation isdescribed in the following section. The number of payloads is not considered in the Flight Score equation. Each team is only required to fly one instance of each of the two selected payloads. Additional points will not be awarded for carrying multiple instances of the same payload concurrently. However, additional payloads of any design may be mounted to the wing for any flight attempt in order to maintain aircraft weight and balance. Any such “counterweight” payloads must be mounted to the wing and not the fuselage. All such “counterweight” payloads that are removable from the wing will not count as additional wing weight. The Student Pilot Bonus will only be awarded to teams that complete a successful flightat the competition piloted by an AMA-certified student member of the team for either Flight Score A OR B. The student pilot is not required to complete two successful flights in order for the bonus to be awarded.
The Report Score rubric that judges will use (outlined in the “Report Guidelines”) is based on a 100 point system. These scores will be scaled down to a maximum of 20 points when factored into the overall score equation above. This is intended to account for minor disparities in report grades recorded by a variety of industry professional judges. As such, report scores of 96 thru 100 will be scaled to 20; scores of 91 thru 95 will be scaled to 19; and so on.
Design Challenge
Multi-Role Adaptive, Light-Weight Wing
- Thisisastrategic weight and balance mission. Just as commercial and military aircraft must be trimmed and balanced for a multitude of potential cargo or armament configurations, your wing must be capable of carrying a variety of payloads in challenging locations.
- The 4 unique payloads that may potentially be flown at the competition are detailed here. Two of these 4 payloads will be randomly selected at the beginning of the competition. Each team is required to manufacture and provide their own payloads for the competition.
1)Payload 1:As many schools already have an abundance of them, the first payload is the same as in last year’scompetition. A single payload of 1½” diameter Schedule 40 PVC pipe cut to 24” in length. The pipe must have a ¼” diameter hole drilled perpendicular to the axial length that extends through both walls. The ¼” hole must be drilled at the midpoint of the pipe’s length. The ends of the pipe must be covered. The weight and size of the covering is at the discretion of the team.
2)Payload 2:The second payload consists of two 1 ½” diameter Schedule 40 PVC pipes. One pipe is cut to 24” in length, and the other pipe is cut to 36” in length. The pipes must have a ¼” diameter hole drilled perpendicular to the axial length that extends through both walls. The ¼” hole must be drilled at the midpoint of the pipe’s length. The ends of the pipes must be covered. The weight and size of the covering is at the discretion of the team.
3)Payload 3:The third payload is 30 US pennies. Additional structures may be used to carry the payload. These additional structures must be removable, or these structures are included in the wing weight.
4)Payload 4:The fourth payload is 16 ounces of water. Additional structures may be used to carry the payload. These additional structures must be removable, or these structures are included in the wing weight.
- All payloads (including “counterweight” payloads) must be externally mounted to the wing and must be removable. The mounting locations of all payloads are left to the discretion of each team, but the locations of the primary payloads DO impact the Flight Score. The number and location of any “counterweight” payloads DO NOT impact the Flight Score
- All mounting mechanisms not specified in the payload descriptions above are at the discretion of the teams, but the mounting must be deemed safe by an AMA member. Any mounting structure that is not removable will be included in the wing weight.
- Flight Scoresare recorded after successful flights as follows: