News Story

Clark School Grad Students Win 11th Helicopter Design Contest

Clark School graduate students earned first place at the 28th annual American Helicopter Society Student Design Competition. The students won with their entry, "Excalibur," a variable diameter tiltrotor.

The students who competed are a part of the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center at the Clark School, which has had an industrious year:

1. 10 out of 16 Vertiflite Fellowships were awarded to Clark School students this year
2. AGRC was recognized as 1 of 3 recipients of Vertical Lift Rotorcraft Centers of Excellence
3. Successful U.S. record-setting flights of the Human Powered Helicopter "Gamera"
4. Winning of the 28th Annual AHS Graduate Student Design Competition with the Excalibur Design
5. AHS Forum Best Paper Awards for Technical Area Sessions: 5 out of 19 were awarded to Clark School faculty/students/alumni
6. AHS Alfred Gessow Best Paper Award for entire conference awarded to a former Clark School students Dr. Anubhav Datta/Dr. Hyeonsoo Yeo and colleague.
7. Members of the Smart Structures Laboratory of the rotorcraft center along with collaborators at Boeing, the U.S. Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate, Honeywell, General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, won the 2011 Harry T. Jensen Award by the American Helicopter Society for an outstanding contribution to the improvement of vertical flight aircraft reliability, maintainability, and/or safety through improved design brought to fruition during the preceding year.

The AHS competition challenges students to design a vertical lift aircraft that meets specified requirements, provides a practical exercise for engineering students. This year's challenge, sponsored by Bell Helicopter, was to design a multi-mission vertical lift system that blends the competing requirements of three very different missions: search and rescue, insertion, and resupply.

Each winning team receives a cash stipend and two members are invited to the AHS Annual Forum and Technology Display to present the details of their proposal.

View the entire AHS Press Release.

Visit the AHS Student Design Competition web site, which includes the Request for Proposals for the 2012 AHS Student Design Competition, that will be sponsored by Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.

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August 26, 2011