The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA)\nannounced that the team from Riverwood International Charter School in Sandy\nSprings, Georgia, is the winner of the 2020 GAMA Aviation Design Challenge. The\nteam from Harkness Career and Technical Center in Cheektowaga, New York, is the\nsecond-place winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs we have been each of the eight years of our Aviation\nDesign Challenge, we are extremely proud of our winners as well as all the\nschools who submitted entries. The COVID-19 pandemic created unforeseen and\ndifficult challenges for the students and teachers, and we were impressed with\ninnovative approach teams took to collaborate virtually and finish the\ncompetition,\u201d said Pete Bunce, GAMA President and CEO. \u201cWe look forward to\nrewarding our winners with unique aviation experiences in the coming weeks that\nwill continue to promote the importance of Aerospace STEM education as well as\nexpose these young people to the vast opportunities that await them in\naviation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over 80 high schools entered the 2020 GAMA Aviation Design\nChallenge, spanning 35 states. During the first part of the challenge, teams\nuse complementary \u201cFly to Learn\u201d curriculum to learn the principles of flight\nand airplane design, which is developed in alignment with national STEM\nstandards. During the second portion of the competition, teams apply their\nknowledge to modify an airplane design and complete a mission in a virtual\nfly-off using X-Plane software, which is a comprehensive and powerful flight\nsimulator for personal computers. Judges score the teams based on performance\nparameters, a checklist of steps involved in the demonstration flight and a\nvideo submission in which the team summarized what they learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members of the first-place team from Riverwood International\nCharter School include Coleman Alvarez, Lucas Daniels and Jessica Keen. Their\ndesign included a substantially increased wingspan, winglets, retractable gear\nand two additional propeller blades. This was the school\u2019s first time\nparticipating in the challenge. They will receive a one-of-a-kind general\naviation experience including a tour of Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation;\ndemonstration flights by Cirrus Aircraft; a tour of a Signature Flight Support\nFBO; virtual experiences including live demonstrations and career panel\ndiscussions presented by Dassault Falcon, ForeFlight and Garmin; and much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Riverwood International Charter School team was taught\nby John Friske. He had the following to say about his students:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJessica, Coleman and Lucas all strived to expand their\nknowledge base from the day we started, working tirelessly to learn new and\nchallenging material. They embraced the\nDesign Thinking Process and Engineering Design Process that I teach and did\neverything that I asked of them with a smile and positive attitude. It was so much fun watching them have a blast\ncreating everything from a supersonic prop-driven rocket to a 300 ft. wingspan\nSportsman that we couldn\u2019t even get to stall! \nI couldn\u2019t be more proud of them!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members of the second-place team from Harkness Career and\nTechnical Center include Madison Baer, Vincenzo Ciffa, Anthony Mathewson, Nate\nPajak, Jacob Robinson, Andrew Schlabach, Olivia Thornton and Gavin Wieszala.\nThe team was taught by Aviation Design Challenge veteran Thomas Leach. Their\nentry included redesigning the fuselage of their aircraft, increasing the\npropeller diameter, converting to a taildragger, increasing the span and AR,\nadding speed brakes and increasing flap deflection. Harkness Career and\nTechnical Center has placed in the top of the challenge for the last three\nyears, including winning the 2018 challenge. They will receive a two-day\nRedbird Flight Simulations STEM Lab Camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas Leach, teacher of the team from Harkness Career and\nTechnical Center, had the following to say about his students:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe students in the Aviation Technology class at Harkness\nCareer & Tech Center in New York State worked through some interesting and\nchallenging times this year which were different than any other. They started\nthe challenge in the classroom and, with school closing in early March,\nswitched to online instruction. Some transitioned well to work from home as\nteams and continued to figure out how to work together to finish the challenge\nstrong. One student, mentioned that this made him see how dedication and effort\nare required in online work as a team. Additionally, he mentioned how this\nchallenging project made him better understand other areas of interest in the\nindustry. The team that finished the challenge had their ups and downs and\ngained many new experiences. It was great to mentor them and ultimately see\nthem complete the competition this year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2020 Aviation Design Challenge sponsoring companies\ninclude Bombardier Business Aircraft, Cirrus Aircraft, Dassault Falcon,\nEmbraer, ForeFlight, Garmin, Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, Hartzell\nPropeller, Redbird Flight Simulations, Signature Flight Support, Textron\nAviation and Wipaire. Sponsors provide financial support for the prizes as well\nas in-kind donations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Learn more about the organizations involved in organizing the competition, visit gama.aero, flytolearn.com<\/a> and x-plane.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) announced that the team from Riverwood International Charter School in Sandy Springs, Georgia, is the winner of the 2020 GAMA Aviation Design Challenge. The team from Harkness Career and Technical Center in Cheektowaga, New York, is the second-place winner. \u201cAs we have been each of the eight years of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation-education"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16110,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16109\/revisions\/16110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}