The VANTUS student aeromodelling team from ETSi makes its debut in the XtraChallenge 2023 competition
The VANTUS student aeromodelling team from ETSi makes its debut in the XtraChallenge 2023 competition
The VANTUS student aeromodelling team , based at the Higher Technical School of Engineering of the University of Seville , made its debut in its first competition, the XtraChallenge 2023 held on July 12, 13 and 14 in Valencia.
This student association from the University of Seville participated in the championship organized by the Polytechnic University of Valencia with an aircraft of their own complete design, the Jaleo-I, finishing sixth in the overall classification and also obtaining two prizes.
Ten months ago, the organizers of XtraChallenge 2023 announced the competition rules, challenging engineering students from various Spanish universities to design and build a radio-controlled aircraft capable of carrying the largest possible load in the shortest amount of time. VANTUS accepted the challenge and began designing their 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, but has also mobilized to obtain the necessary support, resources and personnel to carry out this project for the first time at the University of Seville.
Over time, the dream became a reality, and the School's workshops and laboratories witnessed the birth of the first prototype. Along the way, team representatives participated in events such as the Andalusia Space Conference, the Andalusia Aerospace Forum, and the inauguration of the Spanish Space Agency in Seville.
At the end of June, the aircraft, christened Jaleo I in honor of Federico García Lorca's poem "Anda Jaleo," was completed and underwent several flight tests in the following weeks, though it never managed to complete the circuit. Five days before the competition, it crashed and had to be repaired in record time before being sent to Valencia.
Development of the XtraChallenge 2023
At XtraChallenge 2023, the VANTUS team received excellent reviews from the jury members, as well as from many other participants and organizers. With a conventional yet elegant and complex design, Jaleo-I was presented on the first day of the competition and passed the jury's technical inspections, winning awards for best plans and best technical report. Thanks to this, the Seville-based team started the competition in third place, the highest-ranked team after two teams from the Polytechnic University of Valencia.
On the second day of competition, the Jaleo-I successfully completed a full circuit for the first time during its training flight, demonstrating its aerodynamic capabilities. That same afternoon, VANTUS faced the first scoring round, in which the Jaleo-I managed to complete 9 of the 10 laps of the circuit. After an accident during one of the turns, the entire flight score was nullified, and only the takeoff and landing phase was scored. The team members were able to repair the aircraft in just one hour, making it ready for the next two rounds.
In the second round, a last-minute engine failure prevented Jaleo-I from taking off, thus also preventing it from scoring points in this round. In the third round, VANTUS had its last chance to score in its 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, VANTUS managed to score its first points in a national championship.
The VANTUS team started the season with 16 members and currently has 33. With everything they've learned in recent months and at the 2023 XtraChallenge, the young team is preparing for their next goal: competing in the 2024 Air Cargo Challenge in Aachen, Germany, their first European championship.
