To all our sponsors, friends, and family—we cannot thank you enough. With your help, we were able to exceed our crowdfunding goal, raising $16,535. The funds raised from this campaign will contribute towards crucial materials, software, and tools that will enable us to succeed.

Over the weekend, our 2017 competition plane had a successful maiden flight! Check out a video of the launch on our Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/cornellunmannedairsystems/?fref=ts

On Friday, CUAir team members showcased at the kickoff for Science Olympiad at Cornell. We showed high school students the experiential learning process and how we apply coursework concepts to create our aircraft system.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. We are elated to announce that we have fulfilled our crowdfunding goal of $16,000!

Although we have successfully reached our goal, our campaign is still ongoing through the end of this month! Please continue to share our campaign with your friends and family. Thank you to all CUAir supporters—we couldn’t have done it without you. 

Happy Thanksgiving from all of CUAir! We hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying a restful Thanksgiving break with their loved ones. CUAir is exceptionally grateful for all the support we’ve received from our friends and family towards our crowdfunding campaign so far. Our campaign has one week remaining, and so far we’ve raised $14,000. We are over 85% of the way to achieving our goal of $16,000.

Electrical and Software Updates

Last week, the electrical subteam completed the layout and code for the antenna tracker and power boards; both designs are shipped out and ready for manufacturing.

The distributed systems subteam completed the camera server, and is continuing to work on the ground server. They are also working on integration with the vision subteam, which is working on a shape detection model.

The autopilot subteam is working on updating the ground station and fixing bugs. The ground station is used to control the plane via waypoints. Additionally, the autopilot subteam is working on sense, detect, and avoid (SDA) capabilities, which will allow the plane to change course in response to moving and stationary obstacles throughout the competition.

Integration

With the airframe and fuselage nearly complete, the electrical, mechanical, and airframe team are working together to put the electronics into the fuselage, and the fuselage onto the airframe. They are fitting the components together, wiring the electronics, and testing the integrity of the components to ensure they can withstand the combined weight of all the parts. 

 Social and Outreach

On Friday, CUAir also had a ladies’ bonding night, where women in CUAir enjoyed dinner and cupcake decorating together. After returning from Thanksgiving break, CUAir will also be showcasing at the Cornell Science Olympiad Opening Ceremony. This will be a chance for high school teams across the tri-state area to see the potential of experiential engineering learning at Cornell. 

Thank you to all our friends and family for supporting this team and making our campaign launch a success. We are officially at the halfway point in our campaign! We have raised over $9000 and are more than 60% of the way towards achieving our goal of $16,000, and we could not be more excited. 

UTM Convention

Last week, a few of our team members spent the day showcasing CUAir at the Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) convention in Syracuse, NY. This convention was a wonderful opportunity for the team to increase its visibility and for team members to learn about current industry research and trends. 

 "UTM was an exciting opportunity to network with industry leaders and learn about cutting edge aviation systems." -Troy Joseph '17, Autopilot Lead

Plane Construction

The airframe and mechanical teams are busy at work constructing the next season's plane. The airframe team is maintaining several design concepts from our 2016 competition plane, Theseus.  However, this year, the wings and tail have been resized to offer more lift and maneuverability. This week, the airframe team completed the full set of wings, and is working to complete the airframe.

The mechanical team recently completely construction on the fuselage, which houses the onboard electronics. They are adding a few finishing touches, and continuing to work on the gimbal controller, which controls and stabilizes the onboard camera. Earlier this year, the mechanical sub-team also built a hexacopter, which is easily maneuverable and allows the software subteams to test their work without needing to fly our competition plane.

Check out a link to some of the hexacopter footage on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/cornellunmannedairsystems/videos/923468094426284/

Kit Plane Project

As part of the onboarding process for our new members, CUAir held a hackathon-style rapid design/development challenge. With the help of upperclassmen mentors, the new members successfully constructed a kit plane, named Dionysus. This Sunday, the project concluded with Dionysus' maiden (and final) flight. 

Follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/cuairmae), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/cuairmae/), and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/cornellunmannedairsystems/ ) for more updates!