December is here, finals week starts Monday, and this project is cruising full steam ahead with no sign of slowing down as we gain more people, and gain more experience. Excitement is in the air as we near the finish line for the transmission. Plans to build proto-types, mock-ups, 3d printing, and the like fill the air!

Drawing these transmission components, hashing out ideas with teammates, putting on some music, and it’s time to write up a report for the days work. It becomes so much more obvious the further into the project we go that we clearly have no idea what we’re doing. My thoughts are that our transmission is just as likely to throw pieces to the wind as it is to work properly. There are so many things that can go wrong, but when you look at the math, trawl through pages of notes and every time the math just works. Every time. Engineering is amazing like that… As we surpass 250 man hours in design work alone, I really get a sense of how difficult some of our modern conveniences were to create. But that’s what 200 years of industrialization can do.

A few things bother me still. They say that any man can build a bridge, but the mark of a true engineer is to build a bridge that barely stands. Our vehicle will be so over-built that it can’t possibly break, this will add a significant amount of weight, and it’ll be crude too. But that’s how you learn. Show me a man whose prototype is as good as the production model and I’ll show you a liar. The whole project is a ton of fun and we’re learning so much about it too.

Tristan and Ben are armed to the teeth for a PR mission come the new year, we’ve gotten an email subscription now, and auto-publishing to various websites, we’re turning out drawings daily, and our team continues to grow and thrive.

Until next time

~Beckett Evans, Lead Engineer and Chef

T.Ankmann would like to mention that our Schematics page is up and running, as of tonight. See our work as we put it together!

-T.Ankmann