Things have been moving along quickly for AERO over the past month or so. We have been meeting with several of our Sponsors from last year such as Yancey Martel and Dave Bister from Triangle MetalFab, who have generously offered us a space to work over the holiday break, as well as commiting to fabrication of some of our critical drive-train components. We greatly appreciate their continued enthusiasm for our project. Several AERO members attended a manufacturing convention in Massachusetts last week and we are happy to have met with several companies such as Greene Rubber Company, SSI Manufacturing, and Sherbrooke Gear Works, all of whom have expressed interest in working with our club. The new suspension is on the car and works great. We have had some issues with the accumulator that pushed our driving date back, but it looks like we are getting close to having the all of the updated systems reinstalled in last years car and it should be doing laps very shortly.

To begin, we'd like to thank Hazelett's Strip Casing for cutting some revised bellcranks for us with their water-jet machine. We hope to have them on the car as soon as possible, as the rear suspension facelift is long overdue. In other news, AERO and MiniBaja have just set up our brand new computer workstation. We are very excited to have all our engineering software running at top speed down in our shop. Our new outreach manager is currently revamping the sponsorship campaign, and we look forward to expanding our relationships with local businesses throughout the coming months. Brian and Thatcher made a presentation about AERO at the Vermont Space Grant Consortium, Award Ceremony on the 7th. We'd like to thank the Vermont Space Grant for their continued support.

The Electrical team has been making a lot of headway with our revised control system. We have a lot of new members interested in the control and power electronics systems, and we should have a preliminary control system in the car by the beginning of December. On the mechanical end, the rear suspension has been redesigned and fabrications will begin shortly. The new mechanical members have been busy reverse engineering components for our new hybrid drive-train and creating models in SolidWorks. We have also been preparing for several upcoming PR events.

Since our last update, we have made enormous headway. Veterans of AERO attended several activity fairs around campus, and we are pleased to have over a dozen excited new members. We hosted a BBQ on the 11th so that newcomers could familiarize themselves with the project as well as get their hands dirty disassembling the car for service. Since then meeting attendance has doubled from last year, and spirits are high. On the mechanical end, the frame is currently at Hazelett's Strip Casing where it will be sandblasted and painted (Thanks again to Charlie Dykes and Rick Hayden). We have just about finished reverse engineering the internal components of the Honda engine, and we have a preliminary model of our revised hybrid assembly built in Solidworks. We have also purchased a brand new engine that we will be using in this year's car. Meanwhile the electrical team has been getting aquainted with our new battery bank, as well as overhauling our control systems (more on that coming soon).

AERO has been busy. On Aug 9th Greenspeed went to the Stowe Antique car show, which was a great success. On Aug 14th Greenspeed made a debuted at Thunder Road in Barre Vermont. Brian Leach drove the car around the track during intermission while Prof. Hines and Chris Farmer talked about AERO and Greenspeed over the loudspeakers. This was the first full throttle test of the Gas motor and the car was fast. Possibly fast enough to have won last years competition and thats only half of the cars available power. The batteries were out of the car being serviced so the electric motor was just free spinning... The battery pack was given a major face lift by our newest sponsor www.evdrive.com - thank you Bob Simpson, the pack looks fantastic. Photos of this pack will be released in September. The electronics on the car are being totally redone using a variety of different components but the underlying concept of its operation will stay the same. School starts again September 2nd and a majority of our members will be back in action working on the teardown of the car. We're giving the frame a paint job, new suspension linkages, and a few other tweaks. A new web site is on the way as well as a sponsorship mailing list that will be used to invite our sponsors to key AERO events.

The 2009 fundraising effort has begun and the team is gearing up for a road demonstration of the car on June 28th. It will be on the UVM campus and all are welcome to attend. On another note a time lapse video the work shop at Loudon NH during the competition is available here: Loudon NH 2008 video

The AERO team has just returned from the Formula Hybrid Competition in Loudon. Due to technical difficulties, we were unable to run our car, however we are very proud to have been presented with Best Hybrid-in-Progress, Chrysler's Best Hybrid System Engineering Award, and the Thayer School Dean's Award: Most Innovative Design. We are very excited for our successes, and look forward to getting started on Gen 2. Results from the race can be seen here. The University has released an official story on the car here.

The majority of the suspension components are welded on the frame. We are aiming to have the car sitting on its own wheels by early next week.

Thatcher returned from Acrylic Designs Incorporated today with our custom made accumulator enclosure. The batteries slide in perfectly! Many thanks to Max and the rest of ADI for their support.

The center differential rapid prototype model is complete. After placing it in the car, the drive chain turned it without a problem.

Our list of safety equipment has been checked off. Seeing the harness on the seat is exciting and makes race day seem close.

THE WEDDING NIGHT! The nuptial assembly has been completed and everything fits. This has been a long time in the works--congratulations to the ME team for all their hard work.

The ICE to controller circuit testing complete. Final board layouts due within three weeks.

Laser cut tabs and suspension jigs in from the good folks at NSA Industries in Lyndonville. Thank you!

The last weld on the chassis envelope was made this afternoon. All that's left are various mounting tabs and a few miscellaneous tubes without finalized position. It looks very cool.

Initial test cells ordered for accumulator design. In particular, charging characteristics will be studied.