The Aircraft Design track within the MSc studies in Aeronautical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano provides a great opportunity to our students to be challenged with ambitious projects, often concerning highly innovative platforms and missions. In the past academic year, two student teams, supervised by professors Carlo E. D. Riboldi and Lorenzo Trainelli, successfully competed in the most representative international student design contests: the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) graduate student design competition and the Vertical Flight Society (VFS) student design competition.
Team Pol-E Sparky was awarded the second place in the AIAA competition with their design of a two-seater sailplane with an innovative propulsive configuration, designed to provide flight schools with a fully electric, self-launching training platform as an alternative to the traditional towing procedure. The team, formed by Carlo FAZIOLI (Team Leader), Leonardo FILIPPELLO, Andrea GAIANI, Mattia LURASCHI and Valentino PAROLO, designed a highly optimized, original platform that provides reduced operating costs, large loading capabilities and high endurance.
