EH
Elizabeth Hammell
  • Electrical Engr - Coop Edu
  • Class of 2016
  • McMurray, PA

Elizabeth Hammell and the Zips Aero Design team land in 1st place, and break own world record

2015 May 27

The University of Akron's Zips Aero design team once again earned the top prize at the 2015 SAE Aero Design West competition in Van Nuys, California April 24-26. The team finished 1st overall and set a new record for accuracy in the Advanced Class competition -- breaking their own world record from 2014--and finished 3rd overall out of 41 teams competing in the Regular Class competition.

Hammell, of McMurray, PA, is majoring in Electrical Engineering.

The team brought home seven awards this year.

The object of the Advanced Class competition is to drop three-pound sandbags onto targets on the ground from 100 feet in the air. UA's Advanced Class plane, "Thunder," features an on-board camera and sensors, which transmit data including airspeed and altitude to the ground station. In order to release the sandbag at the right moment, a co-pilot watches the camera and data and instructs the pilot when to drop the bag.

With a better camera and improved camera feed in tow this year, the team managed to hit 7' 3" from the target, improving upon last year's 7'11" record-setting drop. According to Hammell, the next closest team dropped a bag more than 20 feet from the target.

In the Regular Class competition, the team was scored on their aircraft's reliability, weight and payload, as well as a technical report and presentation to Lockheed Martin employees. The goal is to design and build a plane that can carry as much payload as possible, and also to be able to predict well what that payload will be.