Second Annual KIAE Kentucky Wing Design Competition

The state of Kentucky has a rich heritage in aviation dating back to Matthew Bacon Sellers II, who ew Kentucky's rst airplane in 1908 and contributed to formation of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the forerunner to NASA. The objective of the present proposal is to foster in Kentucky high-school students the dedication to aerospace sciences exemplied by Mr. Sellers, thus producing a new generation of aerospace pioneers. The proposed project partners with the Kentucky Institute for Aerospace Education (KIAE) network to host the second annual Kentucky Wing Design Competition (KWDC) in May 2012. This competition will provide high-school students with hands-on aerospace experience, specically, designing a custom wing that addresses the con icting design re-quirements of minimizing weight while maximizing payload and maximizing speed. Last year's competition was an overwhelming success, with more than 100 students attended the competition, and they were joined by over 25 teachers, organizers, and volunteers. The attendees represented 8 of the 10 teams who submitted reports, with 6 teams successfullyelding an aircraft equipped with a student-designed wing and all aircraft completing a full day of ights without incident. As a testament to the success of last year's Kentucky Wing Design Competition (as well as that of KIAE in general), this year the competition will expand from 11 to 13 participating high schools. Last year's KWDC was the rst competition of its kind held among high-school students nationwide and we believe that the competition highlights that the Commonwealth of Kentucky is on the vanguard of high-school aerospace education, and should strive to remain a leader in this area. The funds requested in this proposal will be used to: (i) support undergraduate students to work on the project, (ii) purchase two competition kits for new participating high schools, (iii) purchase wing construction supplies, (iv) support an aerodynamic demonstration at the Experimental Fluid Dynamics Laboratory during the University of Kentucky's Engineering Day, and (v) host the competition. Competition package contents contain the necessary parts and materials to construct a remote controlled aircraft, build a custom-designed wing for it and then perform the ight tests needed to evaluate their custom wing.