A youth hailing from Vijayapura has brought laurels to the district and the State by becoming the first person to participate in the prestigious aero-modelling competition to be held in Arizona, US, organised by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
Bhagatsingh Biradar, an engineering student studying in the sixth semester of Bengaluru’s R.V. College was one of the seven members of his team to participate in the competition.
Having completed his SSLC from Sainik School Bijapur, Mr. Biradar cleared CET and joined the department of Mechanical Engineering.
Elaborating the competition, he said that every year, the AIAA organises competition in aero-modelling in US where several counterparties participate with their designs.
He said the college his constituted a ‘Technical Team’ in 2007 with an objective of research on designing unmanned aircrafts, or drones.
“Since then, one team each has been participating in competitions organised by American-based Society for Aeronautical Engineering (SAE). In 2013, the team was also awarded by NASA for preparing the lightest unmanned aircraft weighing only 130 grams and could lift objects five times of its own weight”, he said.
“We are among the 84 countries selected for the competition. Our team has been named ‘Vyoma’”, he said.
Though the results will be declared later, he said that the drone technology by other countries, namely USA, China, Malaysia and Germany was far better than the Indian technology.
With bright future prospects for drones in India, Mr. Biradar said that colleges should encourage students as India has talent in aeronautics. In India, drones can be used for aerial photography, surveillance and the best it can even be used in agriculture, he said.
