“”I was absolutely surprised it worked,” said Prete, a graduate student in the university’s aerospace engineering department who built the aircraft for his master’s degree.”
I doubt he really meant “surprised.” I think it’s a poor choice of words. Maybe he just blurted that out when he meant “amazed to see it lifting.”
He used CFD tools and modeled it, so I doubt he was really surprised that it worked.
I was thinking the same thing. You can use Lincoln Logs, a ruler, and tape to make exactly the same design. I’m not quite figuring out how this is masters degree stuff without seeing more of the project. It’s nothing more than an internet meme as presented in the article.
He might have been concerned with the balance and weight distribution.
There’s always a chance you missed something. Obviously his calculations were correct.