Crimson Skies Places 5th at International AIAA DBF Competition

Congratulations to the University of Oklahoma’s Crimson Skies Design Build Fly team for their 5th place finish at the International AIAA Design Build Fly Competition in Wichita, Kansas on April 15-17, 2016. The competition hosted 80 teams from across the world including the University of Texas, Georgia Institute of Technology, Cornell University, University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cairo University, Johns Hopkins University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and many more.

Competition Details:

  • The team successfully completed tech inspection on its first attempt.
  • [Mission 1]  The airplane overheated and short circuited a motor on the first flight (working hard against 20 MPH Wichita winds melted the insulating enamel on the coils).
  • The team was prepared with spare parts to repair the aircraft and propulsion system. They removed took two cells to avoid a similar motor failure and were successful in the very next flight window (~1.5 hours later, still in 20MPH winds).
  • [Mission 2] Mothership airplane carried the smaller craft internally, one lap, good landing just as practiced (25MPH winds).
  • [Mission 3] The team executed the most problematic mission without issue in the most challenging winds of the contest (30MPH).

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Team members of Crimson Skies include:

  • Dalton Gregory, Project Manager
  • Seth Fackler, Chief Engineer
  • Alex Spens, Structures Group Lead
  • Dan Carlton, Propulsion Group Lead
  • Nathan Justus, Aerodynamics Group Lead
  • Aaron Allred, Control Systems Specialist
  • Alec Watson, Propulsion Dynomometer Development
  • Chris Sherlock, Manufacturing Specialist
  • Christine Greve
  • Hunter Herzfeld
  • Timothy Blackford
  • Clayton Smith
  • Amy Griffin
  • Alex Bryant
  • Vishnu Priya Parasaram
  • Dylan Gregory
  • Thomas Hays, Faculty Advisor

2016-04-16 16.31.51This top five finish was the best ever finish for OU’s Crimson Skies DBF! A very special thanks to NORDAM for its team sponsorship. The success of the University of Oklahoma at this competition is in great part due to the resources made available by NORDAM.

Congratulations, Crimson Skies! We are so proud of your hard work and great success!

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