AAE Grad Student places 5th at World Model Air Plane Competition, and 1st in the team competition

Event Date: August 24, 2010
AAE graduate student, Brett Sanborn, was a member of the US National Model Plane team that competed this past week in Serbia at the FAI World Championship Indoor Class F1D Competition.

AAE graduate student, Brett Sanborn, was a member of the winning US National Model Plane team that competed this past week in Serbia at the FAI World Championship Indoor Class F1D Competition where 35 people from 13 countries attended. The team finished ahead of 2nd place Hungary and 3rd place Romania.

Brett also competed in the individual world competition while in Serbia. He placed 5th overall, with his longest flight being 34 minutes adn 54 seconds, behind 1st place Ian Treger (Slovakia), 2nd: John Kagan (USA), 3rd: Lutz Schramm (Germany) and 4th: Slobadan Midic (Serbia).

"It's a great honor to compete for your country, and I hope one day to be world champion." - Brett Sanborn

The models flown at the world championship level are called F1D's. F1D is the dsignation given to freeflight indoor rubberband powered aircraft. All fliers must design and construct an airplane within a set of rules. Some of the rules include maximum wingspan, maximum wing chord, and overall flying weight. Weighing in at a mere 1.2g, the planes fly for over 30 minutes on a rubberband weighing .6g. The materials used range from traditional balsa wood to hi-tech composites like boron, Kevlar, and carbon fiber. The flying surfaces are covered with a .5 micron thick plastic. Top fliers also design and construct tiny torque actuated variable pitch propeller mechanisms to squeeze more efficiency from the rubber band.

The goal of flying models in an indoor freeflight competition is to achieve the longest possible flight time. Held every two years, the world championships bring countries from around the world together to crown the best individual and team fliers. Teams are composed of the best three fliers from each country. In the US, qualification requires a year of flying ending with a team selection contest--the top three fliers advance to the world championships. At the championship, each flier is given six chances to do their best flight. The two best flight times out of the six are totaled up for the flier's individual score. Team scores are simply each of the team members scores added up.