Trio wins aeromodelling contest in Turkey

The winning team from VJTI, Mumbai, pose with their micro aerial vehicle at Hezarfen airfield in Istanbul, Turkey.

A team of three mechanical engineering students from Mumbai-based Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) has secured a third position in an international aeromodelling competition in Turkey.

The highlight of their triumph is the fact that they competed with participating teams from military institutions and designed the lightest aircraft model weighing just 1.46 kg.

Hosted by the Turkish Air Force Academy and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, the Future Flight Design (FFD 2015) was held from May 8-10 and themed around designing a mothership aircraft capable of releasing several Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs or smaller gliders) while airborne. Indian team came third behind teams from China, which won the competition, and host Turkey.

The competition involved flying three missions which tested the participants in fields of aircraft design, mechanism design and development for release of MAVs.

“Despite our failure in the first attempt, we repaired our model on the spot and successfully flew again. The judges and volunteering cadets appreciated our never-give-up attitude and also considered us to be a tough competitor for the first rank too,” said a thrilled Nimish Nadgere, a team member, speaking to The Hindu from Istanbul on Wednesday.

A third year mechanical engineering student of VJTI, Nimish along with batchmates Dinesh Kene and Madhav More formed the Indian team christened Vayuputras. The trio also won a cash prize of 3,000 Turkish Lira (about Rs. 73,000).

The competition was tough with teams from air force and other military institutions from countries like China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and universities from Poland, Romania, Hungary, France and Turkey. The Mumbai team scored a design report of 90.67 per cent, and designed the lightest aircraft in the contest.

The team attributes its triumph towards its light-weighted structure, which secured their winning points because of being least expensive. Their efforts in manual fabrication of an efficient design were highly appreciated.