Task 1

Assembly of Bixler 2

Matthew Berk, Shane Hills, Jean Claude Angles

Initially, the team was provided with a Bixler 1 aircraft, as the Bixler 2 was in the process of being shipped. The aircraft took some time to set up, and first checks were made in the Durand building before going out for the first flight (all components were checked except for the motor and propeller, to avoid potentially damaging equipment in the room). At the field, before the first attempted test flight: the motor began to beep and all control of the ailerons was lost while the motor was plugged in. The team concluded that there was an issue with the speed controller. While heading back to the Durand building, the team learned that the new Bixler 2 just arrived so it was decided to spend the Saturday afternoon building the Bixler 2, instead of attempting to fix the faulty speed controller. However, upon installing the old speed controller into the new Bixler 2, it began to work. This means there must have been some sort of electrical failure in the motor of the Bixler 1 as that was the only difference.

The airframe is molded from solid EPO (Expanded PolyOlefin) foam. The horizontal stabilizer was first glued into place and a few minutes later, the vertical tail was fitted. While unpacking the wings, the team realized that a servo could be added on each wing to use the flaps already design included. As a result, the servos were added before gluing the under-wing covers. Finally, the wings were connected, making sure the wires from the servos could be reachable in the avionics cavity.