By Michael Huang
Senior Writer
Students had a chance to show off their aeronautics knowledge last Thursday at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics plane building competition.
Participants were asked to construct a plane out of a single sheet of balsa wood using rubber bands, thumbtacks and paper clips to hold it together, in one hour.
"This is an interesting competition where students get to test their building and design skills," School of Engineering sophomore Sergey Galkin said. "This brings out the analytical mind in the students."
The event serves two purposes - to give students competition between one another, and more importantly, to have fun - said AIAA President Dave Lambert, a School of Engineering junior.
"The objective of this is not just to build, but also to have a good time," Galkin said.
The competition's philosophy is straightforward.
"It's simple, make a wing, a fuselage and a tail and it'll fly … or crash," said School of Engineering sophomore Andrew Lansey, design team co-leader.
Six teams participated in the event, with one to two people per team, each with their own design ideas.
"We're following a basic air-foil design, which means to follow the basic design of a wing," School of Engineering first-year student Michael Chen said. "We're trying to create enough lift to keep the plane up."
Students who may not have come in with a specific design in mind could still contribute.
Team's designs ranged from complicated planes with three layers of wings, or two fuselages, to more traditional designs with the basic fuselage, wings and tail.
"There are more jobs than just building," Rutgers College first-year student Bing Llamas said. "In general a couple of people know what they're doing, but everyone gets to put their ideas in."
Other participants felt the competition was an opportunity to take their knowledge outside of the classroom, and apply it to something.
"I'm becoming an engineer for a reason," School of Engineering first-year student Elana Yanner said. "It's nice to find out if I can do something."
After the hour of building was over, participants took their creations to a lecture hall to time how long their planes could stay in the air before crashing.
Each team was given three chances to throw its plane to see how long it would stay in the air.
The top flight time belonged to a plane built by Paul Bonness, a School of Engineering junior whose plane flew for just over four seconds.
Most planes flew for about two to three seconds, and several flights were interrupted because of the limited space in the lecture hall.
Be the first to comment on this article!