iMechE UAS Challenge
Led Gryphon Arrows — 15+ people — to design and build an autonomous fixed-wing aircraft for IMechE’s international competition: GPS waypoint navigation and precision agricultural delivery within ±2 m, under a hard 10 kg limit.
The team’s own SolidWorks assembly — 176 solids in ten subsystems, tessellated for the browser. Step through them and the rest drops to a ghost, so you can see inside the wing without losing the aeroplane.
- iMechE UAS airframe — key figures
- 2.0 m — Wingspan · built-up wing
- 10 kg — Competition all-up limit
- 2 × 11 in — Wing-mounted propulsion
- Elevator + rudder — Conventional empennage
Evidence
- 15+Team ledthree sub-teams
- 10 kgMass limitcompetition
- ±2 mDelivery accuracyGPS waypoint
- £1,300+Budget managed
- £1,000Sponsorship secured
Case study
The problem
- IMechE sets a fixed rule set and a hard 10 kg all-up mass limit, and the delivery has to land within ±2 m of a GPS waypoint.
- A mass limit is the one number every sub-team has to negotiate against every other.
The design
- Three sub-teams — mechanical, electrical, software — working to one mass ledger.
- GPS waypoint navigation with precision agricultural delivery.
What I did
- Project manager for Gryphon Arrows — 15+ people across three sub-teams.
- Held the mass budget and the schedule across all three sub-teams.
- Managed £1,300+ of budget and secured £1,000 in sponsorship.
How it was tested
- In progress — the competition runs to June 2026.
Result
- Ongoing. The airframe above is the team’s own assembly, not a stand-in: 176 solids, tessellated from the SolidWorks build.
The team is Gryphon Arrows, the University of Leeds entry to the competition: fifteen people across mechanical, electrical and software, working to one rule set and a hard 10 kg all-up limit. I managed a £1,300+ budget and secured £1,000 in sponsorship.
A mass limit is the most useful constraint a project manager can be handed, because it is the one number every sub-team has to negotiate against every other. Structure wants material, propulsion wants margin, and the payload wants both. I held the ledger.
⚠ In progress — the competition runs to June 2026. The model above is the team’s working assembly and will move as the design does.