Indian students bag second prize in NASA competition

Two Indian students have won the second place for their 'Design of Transport Aircraft for the Future' sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

R Anusha and S Srinath from the College of Engineering under Anna University, Guindy, Chennai, have won the second place for their Design of Transport Aircraft for the Future. The design was overseen by faculty advisor Dr E Natarajan.

Gary Redman of Australia's University of Technology won the first place for his 'conceptual aircraft for 2058'.

Sixty-one students from 14 colleges and universities from across the world had prepared the imaginary design of the next generation of airliners and cargo planes.

Fourteen teams and two individual students submitted their designs in the annual competition sponsored by NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics Programme, part of the agency's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.

The highest scoring graduate team was from Georgia Tech in Atlanta, USA.

The contest asked students to create a future subsonic transport aircraft that could carry up to 50,000 pounds, operate on runways between 1,500 and 3,000 feet long, and cruise at speeds between 595 and 625 mph.

The competition also stressed that concept planes should use alternative fuels and be quieter and more environmentally friendly than today's commercial fleet.

The judges graded the designs on criteria including creativity and imagination, feasibility and cost analysis, and comprehensive discussion of design concept.