Manufacturing Team — Zixian Zhang

1.0

Objective

UCLA's DBF team finished 3rd in the world in 2026. I designed, built and assembled the landing gear for P2, laid up carbon-fibre fuselage skins, built airframe structure, supported the 252-inch tow-banner deployment mechanism, and helped rebuild P2 in seven days after it was lost in a test flight.

2.0

Hardware

Extension spring, McMaster 5667N163, hooked between the platesUpper and lower plates cut from the P2 DXFs, 1/4 in thickDial: wheel stroke, 10 mm a turnThe trailing-link main gear Jason Zhang designed, cut and assembled for UCLA's P2 aircraft (AIAA DBF 2026, third place), hung from a 7.5 kg carriage on a drop bench. When the tyre lands, the lower plate swings up about its pin and stretches the spring along the outside of the knee, so the carriage stops over a long, soft stroke instead of a hard bump; the same gear held through high-velocity competition landings. Plate outlines, holes and the spring's size are from the CAD; the spring's rate and initial tension, the damping and the carriage mass are modelled.

P2 is the aircraft UCLA's AIAA Design/Build/Fly team flew in 2026, placing third worldwide; it towed a 252-inch banner and was rebuilt in seven days after a test-flight failure. It is a set of light assemblies on a carbon fuselage: a ribbed wing on a round spar, the tail, motor and propeller, the payload bay and two sets of gear. Jason Zhang designed and built the main gear and the carbon fuselage skins and worked on the airframe structure; the main gear carries every landing into the spar through a clamp-on mount. Dimensions are from the team's CAD assembly.

Fig 2-3The P2 airframe from the team's SolidWorks assembly. Drag to orbit; “Landing gear” fades everything else.

3.0

Work performed

3.1Designed, manufactured and assembled the P2 landing gear: a trailing-link main gear whose lower strut pivots against an extension spring, and a bent steel-wire nose gear. It held through every high-velocity landing at competition.
3.2Performed carbon-fibre hand layups for the fuselage to improve airframe durability.
3.3Manufactured aircraft structures and supported the deployment mechanism for a 252-inch tow banner.
3.4Rebuilt and upgraded P2 within seven days after a test-flight failure, coordinating manufacturing, assembly and design changes to make the competition deadline.

4.0

Specification

Aircraft	P2 · banner-towing mission
My parts	Main and nose landing gear · fuselage layup · banner deployment support
Main gear	Laser-cut trussed plate struts · pinned lower link · music-wire extension spring · set-screw collar axle
Nose gear	Bent steel wire strut in a printed block
Methods	SolidWorks · laser cutting · carbon-fibre hand layup
Result	3rd place worldwide

5.0

Plates

Isometric CAD render of the P2 aircraft from above and behind the right wing. — Pl. 1The P2 SolidWorks assembly: carbon-fibre fuselage, built-up wing and tail with film covering, trailing-link main gear under the wing and the wire nose gear.

CAD render of two trussed main-gear struts with springs and wheels, and a wire nose-gear strut. — Pl. 2P2 landing gear: two views of the trailing-link main gear, whose lower link pivots against an extension spring, and the bent-wire nose gear (right).

6.0

Anomaly report

Closed

Observed: P2 was lost in a test-flight failure shortly before competition.
Corrective action: Rebuilt and upgraded the aircraft in seven days, folding design changes into the rebuild. The new landing gear survived every competition landing.
Lesson: A schedule with no margin still has to fly. Parallel manufacturing and assembly made the week possible.