NASA challenges students to desing disaster response vehicles

Jonas Dino
Sept. 30, 2003
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Phone: 650/604-5612 or 650/604-9000
Email:

RELEASE: 03-76AR

NASA CHALLENGES STUDENTS TO DESIGN DISASTER RESPONSE VEHICLES

Since its development in the 1940s, the helicopter has been used to help
rescue victims of natural and human-made disasters and now university
students from across the nation hope to improve upon the helicopterÕs basic
design to better respond to future disasters.

The 20th annual American Helicopter Society (AHS) Student Design Competition
was sponsored by NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., and
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn. The contest challenged university
students to design a vertical lift urban disaster response vehicle that can
respond to emergency situations in high-rise buildings. The annual
competition, for which NASA is a major underwriter, is designed to give
students a practical engineering exercise and promote interest in vertical
flight technology.

"NASA is pleased to participate in this effort to inspire the next
generation of explorers through the applications of the principles of
engineering physics to the design of a vertical-flight system for urban
disaster relief," said Ed Aiken, chief of the NASA Ames Rotorcraft Division.
"I am very impressed with the creativity and scientific rigor of the
results."

A student team from the University of Maryland took first place in the
graduate category with Georgia Institute of Technology capturing
second-place honors. In the undergraduate category, The Pennsylvania State
University won first place, with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute coming in
a close second and Iowa State University placing third.

Top teams will be invited to present their designs at the American
Helicopter Society's Annual Forum and Technology Display to be held in
Baltimore, Md., on June 8-10, 2004. The forum is the vertical-flight
industry's principal professional technical event.

For more information about the AHS Student Design Competition, visit:
http://www.vtol.org

For more information about the Rotorcraft Division at NASA Ames, visit:

http://rotorcraft.arc.nasa.gov/ar/rotorcraft.html

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Jacques :-)

Editor: www.spacepatches.info