PLANE TUG GROUP PROJECT

As a part of my Engineering Projects for the Community class my group decided to work with Scientific Aviation, an airborne research company based out of Boulder Municipal Airport, in order to help them design an easier to use and more helpful manual plane tug.

Their existing manual plane tugs were simple aluminum bars that worked well for pulling the plane straight forward, but had trouble

when encountering slopes, lips, and turns. We also had to design the plane tug to be both light and small enough to fit in the small

planes Scientific Aviation uses without causing problems.

My group’s solution to these issues was a manual plane tug that featured a collapsible lever in order to provide mechanical advantage and impulses to overcome slopes and lips, as well as to meet the space requirements for our design. We also added structural supports when the lever was in the pulling position in order to help with turns and designed with using aluminum in mind to help balance the strength and weight requirements for our design.

Unfortunately, due to the unprecedented COVID-19 epidemic, we were not able to actually manufacture our design and present it to Scientific Aviation at the end of the semester. Instead, we created an IKEA-esque manual with detailed drawings and instructions for how to manufacture and assemble our design for use by Scientific Aviation.

I personally handled the majority of creating the CAD designs and drawings for our project, as well as acting as a team mediator and helping come up with and field ideas to improve on the existing manual plane tug. Additionally, at the Design EXPO at the end of the year, my group won an award from the Society of Women Engineers at CU Boulder for adapting to the COVID-19 circumstances and adapting our project appropriately.

Plane Tug Group Project: About

The Plane Tug and Lever

This is the main in-use position of our design, with the lever being able to rotate around the central pin and provide mechanical advantage to the user. There is an additional hole closer to the bottom if the user wanted even more help in towing the plane.

Plane Tug - Pulling Position

This is the pulling position, where our design functions most like the original design they have. The two supports can be seen holding the lever from moving laterally and placing the central pin under heavy radial and axial loads.

Plane Tug - Storage Position

This is the storage position, where our design is most compact and efficiently placed in the storage compartment of a small plane. The foot pedal can be seen rotated to ensure as compact a design as possible.

Plane Tug Group Project: Work