The SkyHawks Return Home with NASA Award

The SkyHawks with the award at UPES

After a 12-day trip to USA, including a grueling 3 days priming and preparing the aircraft as well as its own organizational skills, The SkyHawks picked up the coveted NASA Systems Engineering Award at the post-competition awards function. The criteria for awarding the NASA award included adherence to NASA's systems engineering philosophy that stresses on risk-free management of projects that both enhance results and prevent serious errors from affecting team workflow.

The team's silverware from NASA

The 10-member student team, led by an experienced group of 5 final-year Aerospace Engineering students part of the team for last year, scaled a new set of achievements in March, 2012. The team's overall performance can be summarized through the following statistics:

International Ranking (Regular Class):      9

Ranking among teams from Asia:                 1

Highest payload lifted:                          20.3 lb

Success rate:                                       66.67%

The team displayed splendid examples of team work and meticulous planning, thus using it's 10-member workforce judiciously in getting the aircraft ready and fit-to-fly before most other teams. Innovations in goal decisions, strategic planning, environmental adaptation and "repair through modular replacement" were points noted by the competition judges. The NASA on-site representative Mr. George Price remarked, "This is the first time in all Aero Design competitions, East or West, that I have seen team planning that is goal and result oriented. The way you guys have forecasted your competition result and then worked backwards and set a realistic milestone-based target is amazing".

The team's plane: The SkyHawk-2

 The NASA Systems Engineering Award has been sponsored by NASA's Ames Research Centre since 2006. The SkyHawks are entitled to a cash prize of $750 along with the iconic 'winged blades' trophy weighing nearly 3 lb. The team was supported by University of Petroleum & Energy Studies (UPES) and its faculty, corporate sponsor - Infotech Enterprises and a number of individuals who did their bit to make this success possible.

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SAE ADW 2011: Flight Round 4

The third flight of The SkyHawks' aircraft on Day 2 of the SAE Aero Design West 2011. the bird is carrying 15.65 pounds of payload. Pilot: Stephen Byrd from Fort Worth.

SAE ADW 2011: Flight Round 3

This is the first flight round that was successfully videographed by the team, during Day 2 of the SAE Aero Design West 2011. The video dated March 19, 2011 is of the tandem wing aircraft designed by 'The SkyHawks' carrying 9.56 pounds in the payload bay. Pilot: Stephen Byrd from Fort Worth.

The Test Flights

The tandem wing design was tested with a lot of apprehension, though none of that was misplaced. Being an experimental design, a few ground runs were done to establish stability in take-off and effectiveness of the elevator surfaces. A day later, i.e. on February 3rd, The SkyHawks started off with the first set of flight tests, conducted by Hemant Kumar Verma, an experienced pilot from Delhi.

The two flights recorded above confirmed theoretical results of short take-off, high climb rate and reliably static stability. For the record, the SkyHawks (the plane was christened this) took off with a ground run of 30 feet when unloaded, with 30% of maximum power from  the OS 61FX 2-stroke engine.

For more information, do get in touch with the team through details given on the 'Contacts' page.