The second semester starts on the 19th and AERO will be quite busy for the coming months. We recently received word that the welding and subassembly of our new battery pack has been finished and it is currently on its way to us. See the picture below.

The semester is approaching its end, and AERO is continuing to make methodical progress with the development of Gen-2. So far, the Transaxle unit is coming together without major complication. All of the shafts, gears and other transmission components have been installed without interference, and the internals spin and shift properly. The power-train team is approximately one month away from an initial fire-up of the transaxle unit. On the chassis side of things, our custom front uprights have been welded and heat-treated for additional strength. Our chassis will be rolling by thanksgiving break which, will be a testament to the persistence of our mechanical systems team.

Work is currently underway to construct a power-source for our recently acquired induction motor and controller so that the controls system can be built at the bench level. The controls team has been working diligently to improve the through-put of the CAN system, with with end goal to make the vehicle operate with improved responsiveness. All in all, AERO is striving to complete GEN-2 with at least 2 months of testing time to spare. With the current rate of progress, this goal is within reach.

We just offically registered for the 2010 competition. Only 211 days to go!

Its certainly been a while since our last update, but regardless, AERO has been chugging right along. School is back in session and we are very excited about all of the prospective members that we've been hearing from. For anyone that falls into that category (and current members as well), AERO will be hosting a Barbecue on Wednesday the 16th at 6:00pm just outside Votey. If you are even the slightest bit interested in AERO--freshman, grad students, and faculty alike--we highly recommend that you attend. This will be a great opportunity to meet current members, get an overview of what the club is all about, take a quick tour of the car, and of course enjoy a meal, on us. If you have any questions, as always you can contact us at aero@uvmaero.org.

We have added several new albums to our Flickr Page, including selected photos from the race and our sponsorship event. Be sure to take a look.

Last night, AERO hosted its first Sponsorship Appreciation Event on the lawn of Hazelett Strip Casting. We were very happy to see everyone there, and we are excited to start the new season with so many great companies and individuals behind us.

Vermont's own WCAX Channel 3 News attended the event and ran an excellent story (print and video) on our project.

We just unloaded GreenSpeed from the trailer that Peter Hood generously gave us for the week. Thanks also to Woodlawn Farm for the use of their pulling truck. The competition had some bright spots and some disappointments. We had issues with the exhaust noise that prevented us from competing in the acceleration event. We were able to quiet the exhaust by repacking it and adding baffles to the muffler. This enabled us to compete in the autocross event that same day. The combination of wet track and front suspension issues prevented us from scoring well in that event, but it marked the first dynamic entry of UVM AERO.

The next day, after some suspension tuning, GreenSpeed turned heads in the endurance event. Dave McKloskey and Adam Wood showed impressive driving ability given their limited seat time. We were turning lap times that would have placed us in the top 3 for the event, but unfortunately, our modifications to the exhaust raised the exhaust port temperature such that we melted a piston after 18 of 24 laps.

To look on the bright side; our controls system and our power electronics worked terrifically. Regenerative braking was used throughout the endurance event and it performed better than we expected.

We will be sorting through the many gigabytes of pictures and video that we shot during the competition over the next few days and will update the Flickr and Youtube pages of our site as soon as we can.

Thanks to all of our sponsors that helped make this car a reality, it is the best hybrid platform in the SAE series, and work will resume immediately to make AERO a championship team.

As usual, its been a while since our last update, but we are still pushing to make sure the car is ready for the competition. To recap, we have the Elithion BMS installed, and despite a few kinks, it seems to be working out pretty well. The controll system is installed and working as planned with over a week until the next competition, which is a huge milestone considering our history. Likewise, the mechanical systems are all up to spec and ready for action. We drove the car last night and you can see a clip and some photos from the first few laps around the parking lot. Keep posted for some more updates as we near the competition.

Members of AERO were up into the early hours of the morning working to get the new battery management system installed. We got it in the mail from Elithion yesterday afternoon and we're very excited to bring it online over the next few days. More details and pictures are on the way!

After many months of planning and prototyping, the control systems team has begun assembling the final vehicle control and diagnostics network. This system is composed of 5 low power computers distributed across the vehicle, networked by a single bus line. The system is responsible for monitoring the engine, motor, motor controller, battery bank, and pedals. It is also the home of the fly-by-wire that controls the motor controller and carburetor. As soon as the power systems team gives the go-ahead, we will be ready to test the system on the vehicle and resume test driving the car.

While work is continuing on Generation 2 Greenspeed, we have committed Generation-1 to compete in Formula-Hybrid 2009. April is going to be an especially busy month, as the Elithion Battery Management System, and CAN control system will need to be tested and debugged. There are several fabrication and maintenance tasks to perform on Gen-1 to ensure that it is ready for action and many hours of testing and tuning are in store for the car. Gen-1 is a little bigger, heavier and less mechanically robust in some areas compared to Gen-2, but we are confident that it will be a strong contender for first place!

Happy St. Patrick's Day. Please take note that we have moved our website to www.uvmaero.org. We have also created an AERO community newsletter which you can sign-up for on the Contact Us Page

Be sure to check out our new AERO Flickr Page!

With only 55 days left until the competition, we at AERO have been very busy. While we are working on a more detailed update, have a look at Brian's most recent sketch of what Generation 2 will look like come race-day.

We are moving forward quickly with design and fabrication of the new vehicle. A large portion of the chassis is welded together at Triangle MetalFab. We are putting the finishing touches on drivetrain modeling and we will be visiting the folks at Sherbrooke Gear Works on Thursday to tour their facility and dicuss the fabrication of some custom components. In addition to all the hard work, we've been having a blast test-driving the Gen-1 car. We braved the wind and cold on Saturday morning at Mallets Bay where we put our all-wheel drive system to the test out on the ice.

We have been working very hard on our next generation vehicle for the past few months. Development has been moving forward rapidly on all fronts including chassis, powertrain, and electrical component design. The mechanical team has been using facilities at Triangle MetalFab for numerous fabrication tasks, and we'd like to thank everyone there for their support. In other news, we have been driving the gen-1 car under hybrid power and are thrilled with the results. Be sure to check out the videos below (and please excuse the poor lighting).