Special for Egypt.. Students in Upper Egypt develop a “drone” with special capabilities
The aircraft bears the name of the team that created it, "Flight-X", and it has been officially nominated to participate in the "SAE Aero Design West" global competition for vehicles, which will be held in California, USA, next April.
The nomination came after the plane was tested two days ago at the Arab Organization for Industrialization airport in Helwan, under the supervision of the Egyptian Air Force, according to what the team members confirmed to Sky News Arabia.
Team member Jihan Mohamed, a second year student in the "Mechanics" department at the Faculty of Engineering, Assiut University, said that the team consists of 8 students; Among them are two girls, all from the same Faculty of Engineering at Assiut University, the departments of electricity and "mechanics".
She explained that the challenge was "our ability to manufacture an aircraft, which is a field far from our specialization, as there is no aeronautical engineering major in the Assiut College of Engineering, unlike, for example, Cairo University Engineering, which has a specialized department in aviation."
She emphasized that the other challenge was "in the manufacture of the plane from local materials, as no imported raw materials were relied on in the plane except the engines, because they are not manufactured inside Egypt, while all the components of the plane are from inside Egypt."
She stressed that the third challenge was to create a lightweight aircraft capable of performing difficult tasks, and indeed, "we were able to build a plane that weighs no more than 6 kilograms and is capable of carrying a weight close to its weight, and this is a great challenge because most of the models that will participate in the United States competition are larger in weight. And their payloads are less.
first in Upper Egypt
She stressed that this plane is the first of its kind in Upper Egypt, "where no one has preceded us before in all Upper Egypt universities, and the plane was tested under the supervision of a specialized pilot in the Egyptian Air Force, and no significant defects were discovered in the plane during the experiment."
She explained that the plane operates with a motor capable of 1,000 watts of electricity and can be used in certain tasks such as delivering aid and dropping it remotely in conflict areas or rugged areas that are difficult to access.
For his part, Dr. Ramy Antar, assistant teacher at Assiut College of Engineering and supervisor of the team of students who built the plane, said that the aim of this project is to spread awareness of aerospace engineering in Egypt, and focus on the engineering challenges inherent in unmanned and controlled electric aerial vehicle technologies. remote.
He added that the plane was designed to carry out the mission of flying and carrying weights, but the time and distance that the plane takes depends on the capacity of the battery used, and it can be used in transportation between cities if batteries with a larger charging capacity are used for electrical energy.
