Update from Scholarship Recipient Daniel Weaver

I have been fully enjoying the return to in-person classes at UW. The junior year curriculum for Aeronautics and Astronautics is heavily lab based, and it has been really nice to be able to carry out the experiments in person rather than trying to write reports off of data collected by other people. One of the highlights of this quarter has been getting to perform wind tunnel tests on various bodies.

The picture is from a recent lab where we measured the pressure distribution on an airfoil (NACA 0016) in the wind tunnel. The wind tunnel we have been using has some historical significance because it is located in a building which was constructed in 1918 to house a wind tunnel for the then brand new Boeing Airplane Company.

Another benefit of being back in person is that I have been able to be much more involved in clubs this year. One of the clubs that I am a member of is Design, Build, Fly, which, as its name suggests, is an engineering club where the team competes with other schools to design, build and fly a remote control aircraft to meet a certain set of mission requirements laid out by the parent organization AIAA. This year the mission is to carry a simulated vaccine shipment. Teams score higher by completing more laps and carrying more syringes at the competition. The competition will take place in Wichita in April. This will be the first year that the competition is held on site since I became a student at UW and I am lucky enough to have been selected as one of the team members who will get to attend the competition in person.

My R/C aviation roots have come in handy this year. The current “chief pilot” for the club is a senior this year and so I have been serving as the “backup pilot” with the intent of becoming the “chief pilot” next year after he graduates. The picture I included shows me and two of my teammates at a recent test flight of our aerodynamic prototype. The aerodynamic prototype is a foam and tape version of our competition plane that allows us to evaluate our aerodynamic perfomance without risking the expensive components that go into our competition aircraft.

To round up this update here are some specifications for our airplane:

Cockpit Crew: 0

Wingspan: 8ft

Wing area: 7ft2

Length: 6ft

Takeoff distance: 25ft

Empty weight: 10lb

Powerplant: 2 x T-Motor AT4130 2500W (3.35hp)

Thanks for reading, Daniel

Editor’s Note: Our Scholarship Director, Dave Miller, wrote the following regarding Daniel in January:

“Received a note and transcript from Dan and he is doing great, fantastic grades. Other than lab work, his course work is still virtual but he’s enjoying wind tunnel experiments. He thanks the Chapter for our support.”