East Stroudsburg University Electric Aircraft Team
ESU’s electric aircraft team enters an international competition involving 30-40 engineering schools from around the world. This is the AIAA Design Build Fly Radio Controlled Electric Aircraft Competition . Faculty advisors are Professors Larrabee and Professor Elwood both of the Physics department.
Not only do our students have fun constructing a large (10 foot) radio controlled model aircraft, but they learn a lot in the process. They learn how airplanes fly as well as how to operate a drill press, saws, soldering irons, electrical equipment etc. They learn how to function as a member of a successful team, to handle both success (the airplane flies!) and failure (the aircraft crashed several times). Students learn how to manage a complex engineering project and interact with many individuals in bringing a project to fruition.
Here are some images of the aircraft we build and flew.
The ESU "Javelin" Electric Aircraft, competed against 36 engineering schools. Despite predictions that we wouldn’t even get the airplane to fly, ESU came in 13th. We were the only school that wasn’t an engineering school. Among the schools we beat was MIT.
Javelin 1999 Electric Aircraft
The ESU "Impulse" competed in 2000. Not only did we beat MIT, but we also beat West Point, Texas, Miami, Arizona, Syracuse, Cleveland State, Clarkson, Buffalo and others.
Impulse 2000 Electric Aircraft
The ESU "ANSSR BAT" competed in 2001. Not only did we beat MIT (again), but we also beat UCLA, US Naval Academy, Univ. of Texas at Austin, Virginia Polytechnic, etc. We finished 18th of 37, in a very heated contest.
ANSSR BAT Electric Aircraft
