The ETSi student aeromodelling team VANTUS debuts in the XtraChallenge 2023 competition

 

VANTUS student aeromodelling team , based at the Higher Technical School of Engineering of the University of Seville , debuted in its first competition, the XtraChallenge 2023 held on July 12, 13 and 14 in Valencia.

This association of students from the University of Seville participated in said championship organized by the Polytechnic University of Valencia with an aircraft of its own complete design, the Jaleo-I, finishing sixth in the general classification and also obtaining two prizes.

The organization of the XtraChallenge 2023 announced 10 months ago the rules of the competition, in which it proposed to engineering students from different Spanish universities the design and manufacture of a radio-controlled aircraft that was capable of transporting the greatest amount of cargo in the least amount of cargo. possible time. Given this, VANTUS decided to accept the challenge and begin the design of its competition aircraft.

During this 2022-2023 academic year, the team has not only had to face the challenge of creating a real aircraft from scratch, it has also mobilized to obtain the support, resources and sufficient personnel to carry out this project for the first time at the University of Seville.

As time went by, the dream became a reality, and the School's workshops and laboratories witnessed the birth of the first prototype. Along the way, representatives of the team participated in events such as the Andalusian Space Conference, the Andalusian Aerospace Forum, and the inauguration of the Spanish Space Agency in Seville.  

At the end of last June, the aircraft, named Jaleo I in honor of Federico García Lorca's poem “Anda Jaleo”, was completed and in the following weeks it was subjected to several flight tests, although it never completed the circuit. Five days before the competition, it suffered an accident and had to be repaired in record time to be sent to Valencia.

 

Development of the XtraChallenge 2023

At the XtraChallenge 2023 the VANTUS team has received very good reviews from the jury members, as well as many other participants and organizers. With a conventional but elegant and complex design, Jaleo-I was presented on the first day of the competition and passed the technical inspections of said jury, obtaining awards for the best plans and the best technical report presented. Thanks to this, the Sevillian team started from third place at the beginning of the competition, the best classified after two teams from the Polytechnic University of Valencia.

On the second day of competition, the Jaleo-I managed to complete a full circuit for the first time during the training flight, demonstrating its aerodynamic capabilities. That same afternoon, VANTUS faced the first round of scoring, in which the Jaleo-I managed to complete 9 of the 10 laps of the circuit. After an accident in one of the turns, the score for the flight was completely annulled, and only the loading and takeoff phase was scored. Team members were able to repair the aircraft in just one hour, making it ready for the next two rounds.

In the second round, an engine failure at the last moment meant that the Jaleo-I could not take off, also preventing it from gaining points in this round. In the third round, VANTUS had his last chance to score in his debut. On this occasion, the crosswind made takeoff and operation of the aircraft extremely difficult, but, after masterful piloting by the team and a complex landing, for the first time VANTUS managed to score its first points in a national championship.

The VANTUS team began the season with 16 members, and currently has 33 members. With everything learned in these months and in the XtraChallenge 2023, the young team prepares for the next objective: competing in the 2024 Air Cargo Challenge, in Aachen, Germany, its first European championship.