Cyclone Business Jet (CBJ) is an undergraduate student organization at

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

, undertaking the task of designing and constructing a

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

10-passenger commuter or business class jet airplane. It is composed mostly of

Aerospace Engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

majors, however there are also Mechanical and

Civil Engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

s as well as Design majors. Emphasis is taken in designing for lower cost and greater fuel range. Teams are broken off into three sub-groups: the

Aerodynamics Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dyn ...

Team, Performance Team, and Structures Team. The goal of Cyclone Business Jet is to apply classroom acquired skills to a real life problem with a finished product in mind.

History

Cyclone Business Jet was started around 2004 by, Matt Eller. Eller Enterprises, Inc. purchased rights to a business jet stuck in design phases from a company in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

.{{Cite web , url=http://www.ainonline.com/news/single-news-page/article/real-estate-developer-plans-to-resurrect-vantage-11266/ , title=Real-estate developer plans to resurrect vantage: AINonline , access-date=2010-11-16 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110616212843/http://www.ainonline.com/news/single-news-page/article/real-estate-developer-plans-to-resurrect-vantage-11266/ , archive-date=2011-06-16 , url-status=dead The project was then given to Iowa State University to finish. Dr. Dayal and Mr. Eller formed the club by offering undergraduate students a unique opportunity: designing a production business jet. Language barriers and translation issues plagued the first years of CBJ's existence. Most of the research and designing already completed was in Portuguese. After several semesters of

translation Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

some good information surfaced. The most recent data for the shape of the airplane and the external skin was compiled and converted from CATIA to

Solidworks SolidWorks is a solid modeling computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided engineering (CAE) application published by Dassault Systèmes. According to the publisher, over two million engineers and designers at more than 165,000 companies we ...

. From this a wind tunnel model was designed. Currently the final design for the

wind tunnel Wind tunnels are large tubes with air blowing through them which are used to replicate the interaction between air and an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Researchers use wind tunnels to learn more about how an aircraft ...

model is being printed using Iowa State University Aerospace Department's Rapid Prototyping Machine. The machine uses

ABS plastic Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) (chemical formula (C8H8)''x''·(C4H6)''y''·(C3H3N)''z'' is a common thermoplastic polymer. Its glass transition temperature is approximately . ABS is amorphous and therefore has no true melting point. AB ...

and support material to construct the individual parts. It "prints" or lays down the materials at thicknesses close to 1/1000 of an inch. Once finished all the parts will be assembled and then tested in Iowa State University's largest wind tunnel.

Aerodynamics Team

The Aerodynamics Group of Cyclone Business Jet is made up of approximately 35 students. Current work includes constructing a

scale model A scale model is a physical model which is geometrically similar to an object (known as the prototype). Scale models are generally smaller than large prototypes such as vehicles, buildings, or people; but may be larger than small prototypes ...

of the aircraft to use for

testing, as well as displaying in public to represent Cyclone Business Jet. Upon completion the model will be tested in the AABL (Aerodynamic / Atmospheric Boundary Layer) Wind Tunnel in Howe Hall for wind tunnel testing, previously unused by any club at ISU. The model to be used in the wind tunnel could not simply be copy and pasted, then printed. The entire aircraft was scaled down from full size to fit in the wind tunnel. The fuselage,

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...

s, and tail were broken into smaller parts that could be printed in ISU's

rapid prototyping Rapid prototyping is a group of techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical part or assembly using three-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) data. Construction of the part or assembly is usually done using 3D printin ...

machine. Each part was redesigned for optimal weight and strength to lighten the wind tunnel model without sacrificing durability. Data from the wind tunnel is collected using a JR3 force balance. It is capable of reading forces and moments in the x, y, and z axises, also known and six

degrees of freedom Degrees of freedom (often abbreviated df or DOF) refers to the number of independent variables or parameters of a thermodynamic system. In various scientific fields, the word "freedom" is used to describe the limits to which physical movement or ...

. The size of the model requires that the JR3 unit be placed inside the aircraft rather that behind, otherwise the weight of the model is likely to exceed the limits of the JR3 unit. The result is a bulkhead constructed of

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

that will connect the JR3 to the wings and fuselage.

Performance Team

The Performance Group is assigned the task of analyzing how the Cyclone Business Jet will fly and react to

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

ing. There are many aspects of the Cyclone Business Jet to be evaluated, such as aircraft stability, minimum and maximum operating speeds, flight loads, rate of climb, and maximum

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

. The team consists of approximately 19 students of all levels of Aerospace Engineering experience. By combining data from the Aerodynamics and Structures groups, the Performance group can determine how the Cyclone Business Jet will perform in flight.

Structures Team

There are many new faces working in the structures group this semester. This means that a lot of basic learning must be done before we apply our skills on the actual business jet. One of our main goals this semester is to get a working model of the

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

in ANSYS. ANSYS is a

finite element analysis The finite element method (FEM) is a popular method for numerically solving differential equations arising in engineering and mathematical modeling. Typical problem areas of interest include the traditional fields of structural analysis, heat ...

program that can determine the stresses in all parts of the plane. First we must learn ANSYS. We have all learned a few tutorials to get us started, and some pictures are shown here.

Design Team

The Design Group consist of a handful of talented

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-lev ...

design students at Iowa State University. The Team is charged with creating a

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

to represent CBJ, both in the professional world as well as on ISU campus. Other work includes aircraft paint schemes and apparel. It has been undecided what the inside of the Business Jet will have. As a result the design team may, in the future, draw concepts of luxury and economical ideas able to house ten passengers.

References

Abandoned civil aircraft projects of the United States