VKI Hosts First-Ever Short Course on UAVs and Light Aircraft Design

The world-famous von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI, Brussels, Belgium) announces its first-ever Short Course on UAVs and Light Aircraft Design, to be held on May 20-22, 2014 at the Institute's facility near Brussels, Belgium. The latest addition to the VKI's popular annual Lecture Series, this three-day event should be of value to anyone involved in the design, fabrication, testing and operation of manned or unmanned light aircraft in industry or the homebuilt aircraft community. The Chairmen of the Short Course are Didier Breyne of the aircraft design company OAD, based in Namur, Belgium and Jean Muylaert, director of the VKI.

Lectures at the short course will be presented by leading experts from industry and academia, including:

Didier Breyne, OAD The Aircraft Design process in general; How to start efficiently the conceptual design; Unusual concepts

Ken Krueger, former chief engineer for the RV-line of homebuilt aircraft Design consideration during the conceptual design; Safety considerations; How to check your design; From theory to practice

Jean Muylaert, Director, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics How to check your design: statistics, simulations, wind tunnel tests, flight tests.

Willem Anemaat, DAR Corporation Aerodynamic and performance analysis during the preliminary design; Weight and stability analysis during the preliminary design; Aircraft systems: do's and don'ts rules

Serkan Ozgan, Middle East Technical University, Turkey Sizing methods (matrix methods and carpet plots)

P.Hendrick, Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) Powerplant integration at the stage of the conceptual design

UAV Competition - Parallel to the Short Course, the VKI will be holding its first-ever competition on the design of high-speed UAVs. The first prize will be a wind tunnel test campaign in the Transonic / Supersonic facility at the VKI. 17 teams and over 100 students have registered for the competition, sure to produce many new innovations. In addition, poster sessions, flight demonstrations of small UAVs, aircraft-related product displays, workshops, a tour of the VKI's extensive facilities, lunch and coffee breaks will be offered to all attendees.

For the full agenda of the short course, the UAV competition and details on registration fees, housing, and the many attractions to be found near the VKI, see the event's web site, http://www.vki.ac.be/uav2014/