Fir Tree Buttons save Lives

A team from the Warsaw University of Technology came third in the general classification, third in the technical report and third for successful flight and weight ratio of craft to load in a prestigious aircraft design competition. The 2019 Aero Design competition attracted teams from universities around the world for the Micro class.

Aircraft for humanitarian operations
Vital drugs, food and other essentials have to be delivered to vulnerable people in war torn parts of the world. Increasingly they are being delivered by lightweight unmanned aircraft. For 2019 the students had to design an aircraft that fitted into a small cardboard box. It had to be removed and assembled in less than 3 minutes. Then it had to be hand launched and take a payload to a specific location.

To reflect the needs of humanitarian teams in the field, the judges decided that the payload this year would be low density PVC pipes. The team had to find a very strong and lightweight solution. They had to attach the pipes to the aircraft and hold them together. Furthermore, the fixing has to be done quickly and easily.

This is where we came in.

Strict criteria demand the best fasteners
The team came up with the idea of using large Fir Tree Buttons to attach the payload to the aircraft wings and Double Ended Fir Tree Buttons to hold the pipes together.

Urszula Golyska, a member of the student design team, was asked why they approached JET PRESS. “We were looking around for a clever way to attach the pipes to the aircraft. We stumbled upon a similar kind of fastener on another company's website. Then we ordered a sample, but they turned out to be too loose and didn't hold the payload in place. So we started to look for other options and we found Fir Tree Fasteners on the JET PRESS website. We decided to approach JET PRESS, and here we are now."

The buttons are very light, strong and assembly is quick and fool proof. We were happy to donate Double-Ended FTB086 and FTB056 Fir Tree Buttons. The students took the aircraft they designed to the US in April. Here they demonstrated the capabilities of the aircraft and discussed the design process with the judges.

Poland’s leading technical university
The team is from the Interdepartmental Scientific Organisation in the Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering, part of the Warsaw University of Technology. The University is widely considered to be the best technical university in Poland. It has a global reputation for its graduates and for it’s scientific and technical achievements.
Another team from the university entered the advanced class, based on a simulation of a mission to colonise Mars. They took second place in the general classification and second place for flights.

Design and build an aircraft in 12 months
The SAE Aero Design competition is a real?world design challenge. It's designed to compress a typical aircraft development program into one calendar year. This takes participants through the system engineering process of breaking down requirements. It exposes participants to the nuances of conceptual design, manufacturing, system integration, test, and sell?off through demonstration.