Jamshedpur: Students of NIT-Jamshedpur crafted their way to success by securing a position in the top ten at the SAE (Society for Automotive Engineers) Aero Design West contest held in Van Nuys, California, USA, from April 6 to 8.
Team Phoenix, a group of 42 engineering students of the tech cradle, competed with 74 other teams across the globe and secured the seventh position for designing a light-weight aircraft. The team participated in the regular class category and also came third in best design report and first among 10 participating Indian teams. They were awarded certificates and a shield.
Based on the challenge, participants had to design an aircraft that can accommodate maximum number of passengers and cargo. While tennis balls represented passengers, cargo corresponded to an aluminium strip.
Team Phoenix managed to carry 34 tennis balls as compared to team Politechnika Poznanska-Poznan University of Technology from Poland who won the competition with 42 balls. Teams were also judged on parameters like design report, presentation and flight design.
Team North Carolina A&T State University came second followed by Universidad Aeronáutica en Querétaro from Mexico.
"Although it was a great learning experience, we lagged behind in certain parameters. The first one is institutional support in terms of laboratory infrastructure and secondly there was luggage limitations on the flight or else we could gave carried additional items. We are happy that we became the best team from India," said Dheeraj Singh, a third-year mechanical engineering student and captain of Team Phoenix.
The team used balsa wood and plywood to provide the required support to their aircraft. They used 3D laser cuttings for airfoils and also used tapered wings. The weight of the final aircraft was around 4.5kg and it could fly up to 50ft with a 240 hertz transmitter. and with the help of lithium batteries of 22.2 volt capacity. The total budget of the aircraft was Rs 5.5 lakh, which was pooled in from various sponsors across the city.
"We could have performed better had it been a local competition. Nevertheless we are happy," added Dheeraj.
