MIT smites competitors in airplane contest

molliebatmit
Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:14:51 +0000

So this past weekend, fifty teams of aerospace engineers went to Tuscon, AZ, to compete in the [AIAA Design/Build/Fly](http://www.ae.uiuc.edu/aiaadbf/) competition. The teams have been working since the beginning of the school year to design an aircraft which could complete this year’s contest missions.

MIT’s team, led by none other than my fabulous fiance, came in first place – their final score was 263, and their next competitor’s score was 111. They actually designed their plane so well that they only had to complete one of the two aerial missions to win.

The guys are super-psyched – they entered for the first time last year without really understanding that they needed to use strategy rather than just designing a workhorse plane, and came in 11th. This year, they had a better understanding of the sort of design needed to win; they designed a small, ultra-light, not-easily-flyable plane, did what they needed to do, and smoked the competition.

So yay MIT!

And some pictures of the guys and their plane (named Fudgie the Whale) are [url=http://web.mit.edu/ajw61185/Public/DBF07/]here[/url].