SAE Aero Design East Competition 2005
This page is a list of
Aric Wagner’s responses to questions posed to him by Sarah Turnwald, who is a
reporter from the WSU Guardian.
A lot of our time went in to the initial design. We spent
3-4 months designing the plane without building a single piece. Because our
plane was designed in such a way that it could easily be put together, we only
spent approximately 2 weeks building the entire plane. Another part of our
strategy was to have enough parts of everything to build a second plane which
was already half built before we arrived at the Competition. This paid off with
when our plane crashed on Friday.
At first sight, I thought that our plane was completely
destroyed. Once we got to the scene, we realized that it was just going to be a
long night.
I think that we were successful because of all of the
hours designing the plane as well as having a great Pilot. Because our plane
was a conventional design, unlike some other teams at the competition, our
plane was more easily put back together after the crash. Other teams came
prepared with different parts for their plane,
however, because their designs were so unconventional, they had a hard time
putting them together in a timely fashion.
I think the competition was a lot of fun. Seeing the
differences in other teams designs showed the
diversity in the way others think.
A lot of teamwork was gained from the experience and a lot
of knowledge was used in designing the plane. I also think that some of the
other team members gained hands on experience that they can use in the future.
Overall, I think that it was a great experience. For any
other teams that would like to take up this project, I recommend staying highly
motivated and possibly begin designing the plane the moment Senior Design class
starts at the beginning of the quarter.
Aric Wagner