pic: Team 1717 Panel (alone)

[rsilverstein]

We didn't have fiberglass available to us, and yes, weight was a huge issue.
The thin alluminum did pose a problem though, because although it wouldn't bend under pressure, it was so thin that anything that hit it, or scraped against it would cause a dent. One time when building it some kid dropped a skrewdriver on one of the panels and now it has a hole in it.
Oh well, it worked perfectly in competition.

Our major issue was to get the gas-spring release cables tuned correctly. At times the mount for the release got loose so they would deploy a little earlier or later. That was all fixed by our 2nd competition though