BASF - Aero Design Challenge

Friday, October 28, 2016
9:00 - 11:00 am or 12:00 - 2:00 pm

Saturday, October 29, 2016
1:00 - 3:00 pm

Aero Design Challenge is an exploration into design and engineering.   Each 2-hour program explores concepts in aeronautics that challenges participants to construct a working prototype.

Each student in the Aero Design Challenge participates in a series of discovery experiences in the Hiller Aviation Museum’s main gallery, then joins a small team to construct, test, improve and present a prototype able to satisfy the design requirements of the project described below.

Now entering its fifth year, the Aero Design Challenge is part of the Bay Area Science Festival and celebrates the design thinking process in the world of flight. Offered at no cost to participants through the generous support of sponsors and the engagement of scores of volunteers from local technology businesses and universities,  the Aero Design Challenge has engaged over 1,000 participants since its inception.

Drones

For this year’s Aero Design Challenge, participants investigate the technology behind autonomous flight while designing, building and operating a flyable drone!

First, museum exhibits are explored to learn firsthand the science behind autonomous aircraft.  Then, teams work to assemble the aerostructure, electric motors, rotors, microprocessors and radio transmitters/receivers needed to make a drone fly.  Participants practice drone flight using a simulation device and launch a real autonomous aircraft in the Museum’s specially-configured Drone Plex flight center.