Organization, Planning Keep Aero Team Ahead of Schedule With Shell Design, Construction

Thanks to careful planning, the Aurora-II shell is nearly complete! The Aero Team completed the final structural design and material selection in December, allowing us to get the materials donated and delivered before they were needed. By the end of January, the top shell was complete. In February, we completed the bottom shell and permanently mated the two shells. Now, the mated shells are awaiting final painting.

After the final painting, the shell will be delivered to the Array Team so they can add the solar array to the body. The shell will then be attached to the chassis.

The Aero Team is working on building the canopy and integrating driving mirrors and turn signals into the canopy and body. We will test-fit these items with the mirrors mounted inside the canopy to verify whether this placement will meet the Sunrayce 95 rear visibility requirements. if not, the mold will be reduced by several inches and the rear mirrors will be mounted just outside the canopy.

The next major project will be designing wheel fairings to reduce the amount of drag caused by the wheels.

This will be done in a similar manor as the shell. First, we'll make a Computer-Aided Design(CAD) file and then we'll generate a Computer-Aided Manufacturing(CAM) file. A machine will use the CAM file to mill out a fairing mold, which will be used to make three fairings. When the fairings are finished, they will be attached to the body.

As soon as the shell is on the car, we can begin real-world testing.