EAS4710 Capstone senior Design Poster Presentations:
April 15th, 2022; 6:00 – 8:00PM
Our project this semester is to design a Responsive Aerial Fire Fighting Aircraft. With continued changes to the planet’s climate, the number and intensity of wildfires continues to increase, posing ever larger threats to life and property both within the United States and around the world. Researchers anticipate this trend to continue for the next 50-100 years as temperatures rise, weather events become more extreme, and regional drying continues. In addition to increasing need, technology available today enables more effective fire responses. There has never been a better time to design and produce specialized aircraft for wildfire response, keeping in mind the proposed solution must be affordable by the various Government agencies and their contractors that are potential customers.
The majority of the aircraft currently in service for firefighting purposes are modified commercial or military airframes. Internal or external equipment is integrated onto the airframes, but compromises and inefficiencies are created due to the differences in aerial firefighting payload delivery compared to the aircrafts’ original design missions. The density of fire retardant creates substantial structural loads on key parts of the airframe. These high loads are exacerbated by the extreme maneuvers required when delivering the fire retardant. The purpose-built designs could trade robust structural designs with easily repairable/replaceable structures at a potential weight savings.
Further detail on the competition, design expectations and project deliverables can be found in the Spring 2022 EAS4700 Project Requirements.
For external feedback providers, click here to access the evaluation survey.
Click below to view each team’s abstract, 90-second pitch, and to access their Zoom meetings:
Group 1 – Phoenix Tanker – Alexander Reilly, Andrew Hull, Jimmy Lewis, Sophia Pinto-Trujillo, Riley Richards, Randy Ruiz, Oscar Torres-Cruz, Noah Zambrano, Jessica Garcia, Carlos Bello.
Group 2 – FIREFLY – Michaela Baughn, Shameer Boursiquot, Dylan Carter, Salvatore Como, Julian Davis, Patrick Hess, Hiroyuki Matsumura, Annabeth Smith
Group 3 – HYDROPLANE – Michael Bates, Olivia Clubley, Matthew DuBois, Charles Galluscio, Bryce Moran, Christian Peña, Michael Phillips, Akaash Sharma, Isaac Wiley, Colin Williams
Group 4 – AT-8 Phoenix – Adam Ellis, Alyssa Sanchez, Anthony Lessa, Dakota Roy, Daniel Valencia, David Hargrave, Dillon Mickel,
Ena Schentrup, Gavin Gamble, and Logan Molaschi