ACRP Aircraft Design Competition

The Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) sponsored a competition that my Engineering Leadership and Development course participated in.

Engineering Leadership and Development (ENGR408) at Penn State is a course elective focusing on principles and theories for leadership in industry. During the semester I took this course (spring 2020), the project involved designing a prototype for the Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP). Out of the many options, my team and I decided to move forward with the “airport environmental interactions” assignment, which involved creating a sustainable airport improvement that can adapt to the effects of climate change. The course also emphasized the design process with each member of the team taking turns being “leader” for each part of the process. Throughout the semester, we performed research on different problems resulting from greenhouse effects, investigated known solutions, and talked to experts in the field. With this combined information, our team created simple prototypes, tested them, and received feedback. The direct problem we identified involved annual rising temperatures, which can reduce a plane’s ability to generate lift and take off efficiently, thus causing delays and cancellations. Our goal was to create a temporary solution for this problem that could be easily integrated into the airport system.

The research we initially conducted indicated that one of the main ways the industry is currently addressing this dilemma is by lowering the weight of the plane by either leaving luggage behind or having passengers take other flights. Since this is not ideal for customers, we decided to focus more on the aerodynamics of the plane for our solution. After exploring many ideas, we designed an attachable fan as the final product. The model is based off of the household Dyson fan that lacks blades but uses an airfoil design to generate airflow. This fan can attach to the turbines of the airplane to help generate enough lift for the planes to take off safely and in a timely manner without inconveniencing customers. Figure 4 illustrates the fan cut in half to show the airfoil-like shape used to maximize air flow. Due to being sent home halfway through the project because of the pandemic, some of the specifics for the design were difficult to determine, including the weight of the fan and how it adjusts to different planes. Our idea was to have the fan design extend to fit different commercial flights and be more versatile. After we presented our project, we received helpful feedback from the corporate sponsor, who was very interested in our innovation as a viable solution.

A fun aspect of this class as well was that we had the chance to work with international students from the University of Sydney, Australia! One of the students was in our group and helped contribute to the project for the first six weeks of the course. The program also held some social events outside of class to get to know the foreign students better as well and make them feel more welcomed in our small college town.

Figure 1. SolidWorks Rendered Model of Project

Figure 2. Cutout of Design in SolidWorks

This shows an airfoil-like shape that is meant to maximize the airflow going into the fan during takeoff.

3. Drawing Demonstrating how Project Works

4. Total Costs and Benefits Calculated