fssoc

[fssoc]

Announcement

We are restarting the use of this section of the website after 3 years and intend to use it as a means of communication with our members. Watch this space for more announcements and updates!

[fssoc]

Groups of the Week

UK: James' group; Alex, Alex, Piyapat & Tingting For consistent work and keeping up to date with the work assigned!

US: Ugnė, Rūta & Luka Continuous work towards improving their model considering feedback received. They also talked to Chris (Merlin owner/creator) and discussed their concept further.

Honourable mention: Luka's group; Simas & Simonas for their enthusiasm and getting ahead towards looking at starting the CAD!

[fssoc]

Groups of the Week

Congratulations to the groups of the week!

US: Matt, Jason and Oli are the US group of the week for making drastic improvements and having the best handling aircraft despite their challenging concept.

UK: Simas and Simonas have won the title this week for being ahead of schedule by completing Cg calculations.

[fssoc]

Groups of the Week

Congratulations to the groups of the week!

US: James has succesfully achieved VTOL capabilities in his concept as well as being the first to reach the milestone of steady level flight in the simulators.

UK: Niklas & Soma have continued to make fantastic progress this week, earning the title for having caught up after only starting in week 4.

[fssoc]

Groups of the week

Congratulations to the groups of the week!

US: Ruta, Ugne and Luka have made exceptional progress among the US teams, managing to progress from the constraints stage to a flying model since last week.

Honourable mentions include Clinton and Christian for making great progress of their own and developing a model in the simulators in just four days.

UK: Antony, Dilanm Mohamed and Ahmad have earned the title this week for advancing from an incomplete payload range analysis to a set of finished contraints.

The honourable mention for the UK teams is Nikita and Soma for working productively to catch up despite a delayed start with the society.

[fssoc]

IT Flies US Competition

Congratulations to both teams today who won a number of prizes at the Merlin IT Flies US Competition!

Yufei, Thomas and Ana won (in the second picture): 1st Place and the Best Presentation Award with their 4 passenger VTOL air taxi

Charles-Antoine, Seiya and Kavin won (in the third picture): Most Innovative Design Award and 2nd Best Presentation Award with their 270 seater hybrid passenger jet

Huge credit to both teams - they have all put in a tremendous amount of effort towards this competition over the last year and it hasn’t gone unrecognised.  We are extremely proud of their achievements!  More pictures to follow!  

A huge thank you to everybody from Merlin Flight Simulation Group for their help using the simulators and organising the competition, as well as sponsors of the competition.   Finally, we would like to thank the MACE Student Experience Department and the UoM Student’s Union for the funding which enabled the society members to attend and experience this prestigious competition.

[fssoc]

Manchester to host Merlin IT Flies UK 2017 competition

Manchester and the society are extremely pleased to be hosting the Merlin IT Flies UK 2017 competition for the first time this year! The University and society members look forward to competing and organising the competition with Merlin Flight Simulation Group. The event will be a great learning and networking experience for all the competitors. We hope to see you there!

[fssoc]

FSSoc November Update

Another academic year has started and 8 weeks of semester 1 are already over at the University of Manchester for the Flight Simulation Society, FSSoc. Our new committee members are working hard to run our IT Flies and Project Phoenix sides of the society, exploring new ways in which to build on the societies previous success and utilising the skills of the current members. The society is excited to update everyone on our progress to date and plans for the rest of the year.

Project Phoenix Update

Ten new members have joined the Project Phoenix team in transforming a BAE Hawk facsimile cockpit into a custom flight simulator. Under the leadership of three senior members, Project Phoenix is looking to have a fully working basic simulation environment inside the cockpit, to deliver on the goal of a prototype simulator.

So far, Phoenix members have been exploring the use of Arduino microcontroller boards to integrate them with Flight Simulator X.  Members have been able to connect potentiometers and switches to the Arduino board to control the pitch and roll of an aircraft.

Members of the Phoenix Project learning how to integrate Arduino boards with                                                  Flight Simulator X

Phoenix members have also repositioned existing shelving around the cockpit using them as cockpit screen stands to create a starting point for a basic simulation environment.  Over the next few weeks, they will be trying to put up an immersive projector screen for the simulation environment alongside working on cockpit controls.

                         Project Phoenix simulation environment v1.0

IT Flies Update

More than 20 teams joined IT Flies with the aim to design an aircraft in order to attend the IT Flies UK competition.  Teams are currently working on wing sizing after extensive time over the last few weeks spent on constraints analysis and centre of gravity calculations.

The ‘IT Flies’ side of the society will continue to build on its competition success by entering two teams into the annual Merlin IT Flies US competition with teams exploring supersonic business jets, fighter jets and electrically propelled aircraft which will be tested by our committee team in the coming weeks.

IT Flies teams working on their aircraft design with senior supervisor during a                                         society’s weekly meeting

The society is also exploring other aircraft design competitions this year. A team of 8 second year students are participating in an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) competition to design a light business jet family of aircraft. This design process and report is even more detailed than that taught currently within in the IT Flies side of the society, with team members exploring CFD simulations and wind tunnel experiments to justify their design. The society hopes this competition is something we participate in annually to further expand our knowledge into aircraft design.

With 4 weeks still to go until the end of the semester, FSSoc hopes to test the senior member competition models, as well as progressing with the Project Phoenix simulation environment.  Another update will provided next semester, and in the meantime, if you have any questions for the society, feel free to email us (admin@fssoc.co.uk) or alternatively contact us via:

Web: www.fssoc.co.uk

Facebook:  UoM Flight Simulation Society

Twitter: @UoMFlightSim

Instagram: uomflightsim

Written and edited by:

Antonella Caldarelli (General Secretary):  antonella.caldarellii@student.manchester.ac.uk

Vaz Gorasia (President): gautam.gorasia@student.manchester.ac.uk

[fssoc]

1st and 2nd places in IT FLIES UK 2016!

We are excited to announce that on Thursday 9th June, the Flight Simulation Society (FSSoc) took home 1st and 2nd places at Merlin IT Flies UK Competition held at the University of Swansea.

FSSoc entered two teams; a Blended Wing Body designed by Yufei Jin, Ana Gea Espinos and Thomas Moissinac (1st Year Aerospace Engineering students) and an intermediate class helicopter designed by Matthew Hogg, Cian Hanley & Mitch Follett (3rd Year Aerospace Engineering students). They have won first place, and the joint 2nd place respectively. This means that in 2016, FSSoc has won both the USA and UK Merlin IT Flies Competitions - A fantastic achievement, which all the members in the society deserve great credit!

[fssoc]

IT FLIES UK 2016

Today two of our society teams are competing in the Merlin IT Flies UK competition. Over the last year, both teams dedicated their own free time, to design a Blended-Wing-Body (BWB) aircraft and an already victorious Intermediate Class Helicopter. We wish them both the best of luck!

The competition and the testing process of the models can be watched via following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMhOmNsWsUo

[fssoc]

1st Place in the Merlin IT FLIES US Competition!

The Flight Simulation Society (FSSoc) is pleased to announce our recent success at the Merlin IT Flies USA Competition held on Saturday 9th April at the University of Dayton.

FSSoc entered two teams; a forward swept wing fighter jet capable of short takeoff and landings designed by Tomas Mackus & Patrica Ferrer-Dalmau Font (2nd Year Aerospace students) and a Intermediate class helicopter designed by Matthew Hogg, Cian Hanley & Mitch Follett (3rd Year Aerospace students). Both teams deserve great credit as both models were extremely complex in their design with the teams spending hundreds of hours researching and designing their models. The helicopter model was the first ever helicopter designed on any Merlin Simulator around the world. We are pleased to announce that this year, FSSoc won the USA competition outright with both Manchester teams beating all American competitors to the 1st place prize. The helicopter design team also won the best presentation and most innovative design (kindly sponsored by Diamond Visionics - creators of the new graphics package, GENESIS, available for the Merlin simulators), winning all the awards available at the competition.

We would like to thank all staff at MACE, including the Student Experience department for their continued support.  We would also like to thank everybody from Merlin Flight Simulation Group, particularly Marion and Chris Neal for their help in understanding the simulation software and organising the competition. Finally, a huge thank you to the Royal Aeronautical Society and the Zochonis Travel Grant for the funding which enabled the society members to attend and experience this prestigious competition.

The society is now looking forward to the IT FLIES UK competition in Swansea on Thursday 9th June.  Over the next few weeks, teams’ simulation models, presentations and CAD will be finalised in preparation.

[fssoc]

Royal Aeronautical Society’s Flight Simulation Group’s “Flight  Simulation And Universities” seminar

The Flight Simulation Society attended the Royal Aeronautical Society's Flight Simulation Group's Flight Simulation and Universities Seminar over the Easter break. The meeting was a wonderful opportunity for the society to see other universities' work throughout the UK utilising flight simulation. The event included participants from many universities with students from the University of Liverpool and University of West England standing out from the crowd. The Flight Simulation Society from the University of Manchester presented the progress it has made since it's last presentation to the Group a few years ago and received an enthusiastic response. The hosts, Thales and neighbouring L3 Link offered tours of their flight simulation facilities, which included an opportunity to land the Airbus A320 in a L3 Link flight simulator, which was extremely enjoyable! Engineers from both companies made it clear that they would love to help grow flight simulation in education and provided their contact details. It is hoped that the Flight Simulation Society will be able to work with Thales and L3 Link in the near future. Furthermore, RAeS expressed a desire to develop more widespread passion for flight simulation throughout universities across the UK.

[fssoc]

Progress Update December 2015

As we start to turn our attention to exams looming on the other side of New Year, the teams competing in ‘IT Flies’ are putting the finishing touches on their preliminary designs. US teams have completed the first round of intensive testing, which they look to continue in the New Year. UK teams are preparing for the testing period that February brings around. However, before we catch up with the various first and second year teams preparing for the UK competition and the 3 teams developing designs fo the US competition, let's review what Project Phoenix has been up to.

Project Phoenix is working on their new simulator that will create offer the experience of flying in an actual aircraft. Virgil and Nicholas are heading up the project and this year, they are joined by approximately eighteen keen students from a wide range of disciplines. The eighteen students are in six separate teams each with their own specific area to focus on. These are the HUD on the cockpit window, the control column, the throttle and flight systems, the rudder pedal, the simulation environment and the structure.

The teams are currently in the design phase of the project. I caught up with a student involved in the team working on the throttle and flight systems team. He said that the being able to learn about SolidWorks and Excel has been really useful and enjoyable even though he has had trouble on figuring out how to best utilise SolidWorks to create the design required. He also said that being able to get your hands dirty rather than just sticking to theory is really good and is a nice thing to do when you’re juggling so much university work.

Project Phoenix seems to be going well as a whole and Virgil has told me that everything is on schedule and they have been organising simulator sessions to get the students working on the project up to speed with how the aircraft performs and controls and they set up a competition to see who is the best at landing an aircraft, which went extremely well.

Turning our attention to the ‘IT Flies’ side of the Flight Simulation Society, the first year teams are starting to wrap up their designs before entering them into Excalibur. Speaking to most of the teams they are on track with no major major issues in any team, however, like every year, they all have some issues that need to be ironed out. Since teams are designing a huge range of aircraft, from small range aircraft for 3 passengers to very long range aircraft carrying 200 passengers, many problems are specific to their aircraft.

However, speaking to a few leaders of first year groups most seem to be struggling with most with their centre of gravity calculations though some are also struggling with the propulsions of their aircraft. The first years which I have spoken to have said they are really enjoying being in the society which is always good to here. They have said they think it is valuable experience and is helping them to be able to apply some things they are learning in their lectures. Furthermore, the second year team that I am part of is designing a Mach 5 passenger aircraft, we are quite far along in our design process and we are almost ready to create our aircraft model in the simulator.

The three aircraft designs competing to enter the US competition this year are a forward swept fighter jet, a UAV (like the Reaper) and a Redbull Racer type aircraft. I have talked to all of the teams designing an aircraft for the competition, who have all tested their preliminary aircraft in the simulator, and they have all said it is going well so far.

The society is performing very well this year and we can see good progress on both sides of the society. We are continuing to grow and attract members from other disciplines who share the love of aircraft. We strive for excellence in all competitions and demand the highest quality of work from our members. We hope to grow further in the future and to continue our successful streak, helping students improve their understanding of Aerospace Engineering and helping them to become more successful engineers in industry.

Ciaras Wyatt Social Secretary

[fssoc]

2nd Place in the Merlin IT FLIES US Competition

Our second year team, Ben and Vaz took to the States over Easter to compete in the American IT Flies competition. The boys began work last September, trying to transform their very ambitious idea of a variable sweep supersonic civil aircraft into a reality. Spending countless hours each week going through rigorous calculations and flight-testing, they invested a tremendous amount of effort into the project.

This year the competition was held in Dayton, Ohio and the boys took full advantage of their time there. They visited the national museum of the USAF and the Wright Brothers Museum where they managed to see the presidential and R&D galleries whilst they spent their evenings working on and polishing their presentation.

The morning of the competition, they talked to a couple of the test pilots and learned all about their experiences flying for the US air force. After giving their presentation they faced some difficult questions which they handled well and then went onto the testing phase of the competition. The pilots put the aircraft through its paces and were impressed by it's performance, they gave the team some really good feedback which the boys found invaluable. Overall they placed second in the competition.

They found the entire US trip an incredible experience. Ending their journey with a satisfying result and gaining a wealth of knowledge in the field of preliminary aircraft design has been very rewarding for them and they have done the society proud.

[fssoc]

Society-wide Update

Project Phoenix

Work on Project Phoenix is going well, the hawk cockpit has been stripped out completely and is ready for simulation features to be added

4th year Mechanical Engineering Project:  The G-Seat

Progress is going steady and the seat should be completed in the upcoming weeks, the team has really enjoyed working on the project and said it has been one of their most rewarding university experiences. The plan is to integrate the seat accompanied by a motion platform to operate inside the hawk cockpit providing haptic feedback to the pilot in the seap. The code to actually cause the seat to respond to simulation feedback has also been designed by the team and is in the final stages of debugging. A tremendous amount of work has gone into the whole project and the guys have done a brilliant job.

IT-Flies competitions

First year teams gave mock presentations this week in preparation for our in-house MACE competition next week, which will decide which teams go to the UK competition in June of this year. The teams are progressing really well and have come a long way since the beginning of the year, they are continuing to test their aircraft in the simulator and are refining their models to fly smoothly.

Our second year team is also preparing for the IT flies America competition taking place over Easter, they are working on a super-sonic transport and are coming out with some very promising work!

[fssoc]

Work commences on Project Phoenix.

                                 Phoenix is housed in the George Begg building - Room A1 which has been kitted out with state-of-the-art computers to aid design and will eventually become the society's new home. 

[fssoc]

FSSoc polo shirts coming soon!

At only £15 they're a steal.

Register to get your exclusive item now: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1tRCUa1EKeljjOQhWVM5uPJx5dnBb1PZsJdYOc3Wtkk0/viewform?usp=send_form