The Aerodynamics (Aero) team at GTSC leads the aerodynamic design of all vehicles that GTSC develops. This includes optimizing the vehicle configuration for the best possible aerodynamic performance, whether that be top speed, range, etc. The task of designing the aerodynamic shape of the vehicle is a highly integrated problem which has led to the Aerodynamics team having a highly integrated workflow with all the other subteams within GTSC. From the internal structures to control surface servos and even engine integration, the Aero team works with it all.

Since GTSC’s founding, the Aerodynamics team has been working to optimize the design of our prototype vehicle, Hyperion. Hyperion’s configuration is designed for flight speeds above 100 mph. The team utilized low-fidelity analysis tools such as OpenVSP to design the aircraft and AVL to analyze its performance. We developed multiple wrappers and algorithms to make our design workflow more efficient, allowing us to quickly iterate on various configurations and analyze their performance. These wrappers not only allowed us to optimize Hyperion’s design top speed to be 200 mph, but also allow us to rapidly test future vehicle configurations.

Most recently, the Aerodynamics team has begun the Conceptual Design Phase of GTSC’s first attempt at breaking the Guinness World Record for the fastest remote control, jet-powered aircraft, RBV-1. The current world record stands at 462 mph and RBV-1 will aim to reach speeds upwards of 500 mph. The team is working now to conduct vehicle-level trade studies on various transonic aircraft configurations, weighing the advantages and disadvantages of each. We are currently using a multi-fidelity approach using both low- and high-fidelity tools and models to predict the performance of various transonic aircraft. Moving forward, the team will be looking into high-fidelity methods of analysis to further investigate the various configurations for RBV-1 as we move forward into the Preliminary Design Phase.