Overall win for TU Darmstadt in the student competition »Stahl fliegt« in Dortmund

On the day before the competition, all teams presented their planes and their manufacturing processes at Technische Universität Dortmund. After visiting the test field of the Institute of Forming Technology and Lightweight Construction (IUL), there was a barbecue together with all teams and the organizers in the evening. As a venue for the flights on the next day, the exhibition hall 3B in the Westfalenhallen Dortmund was chosen. The planes where launched from a height of about six meters. Besides a maximum weight of 400 grams, they had to fit into a cube with an edge length of one meter. The maximum budget for each team was 300,– €. In this year’s competition, the planes did not start in categories and it was not distinguished between driven and non-driven models. For evaluation purposes, a minimum flight time and distance were defined, multiplied by a weighting factor and added for the overall standings. The concept of a flying disk of Team Darmstadt 2 with an average flying time of 7 seconds and a flying distance of 95 meters won the competition. Team Darmstadt 1 took place 8 and Team Darmstadt 3 remained without a valid attempt. Now it is up to Darmstadt to defend the title in the next year’s contest.

The competition is organized by the Institute of Metal Forming (ibf) in Aachen and financially supported by the FOSTA (Research Association for Steel Application).