{"id":31759,"date":"2025-05-26T20:05:30","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T20:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=31759"},"modified":"2025-05-26T20:07:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T20:07:25","slug":"u-s-students-capture-first-place-honors-in-fai-international-aviation-art-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/virginia\/u-s-students-capture-first-place-honors-in-fai-international-aviation-art-contest\/%20","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Students Capture First Place Honors in FAI International Aviation Art Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Artwork above by Lottie Schmutz.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. students Lottie Schmutz (Wyoming) and Lalitha Kuchipudi (Virginia) captured first place honors in their respective age categories at the FAI International Young Artists Contest. They are two of the nine artists<\/a> who placed nationally through the coordinated efforts of the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO) Center for Aviation Research & Education<\/a> and the National Aeronautic Association<\/a> (NAA). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FAI announced the 2025 International Young Artist Contest winners earlier this month, and participating countries included Bulgaria, China, France, India, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, Serbia and USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lalitha and Lottie have earned an accolade that many people can only dream of \u2013 \u201cBest in the world.\u201d Lalitha was awarded First Place in the Senior category (age 14 \u2013 17) and Lottie was awarded First Place in the Intermediate category (age 10 \u2013 13).<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Artwork by Lalitha Kuchipudi<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Working under the 2025 theme \u201cWomen with Wings,\u201d Kuchipudi\u2019s drawing depicts a young girl dressed in an astronaut\u2019s flight suit, jumping on her bed while erupting in laughter. On the wall behind the girl are posters of astronaut pioneers, including Sally Ride, Valentina Tereshkova, and Jeanette Epps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to focus more on women in aviation, instead of doing a single portrait of one woman. Their influence was really great on kids. I wanted to be an astronaut,\u201d Kuchipudi said.         <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg Campbell, director of the Virginia Department of Aviation (DOAV), noted in a press release<\/a> that he sees the significance of Lalitha Kuchipudi\u2019s accomplishment. \u201cA Virginian represents not just the best of our nation, but the entire world. Our motto that \u2019Virginia is for Flying Lovers,\u2019 is quickly becoming a fact,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kuchipudi was one of three Virginians to win honors at the national competition and advance to the international stage. Andrew Yang, 9, and Aspen Xing, 12, also represented the United States in the art contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The international art contest, presented by the FAI, is held annually with a theme that aims to inspire interest in aviation among youth by providing them with a space to express their ideas through art. The NAA is the National Aero Club (NAC) member of the FAI and delegates authority to NASAO, who oversees the event in partnership with the NAA. The contest has introduced air sports to children nationally for decades and continues to inspire the next generation of aviation enthusiasts and athletes through the participation of NASAO\u2019s state members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

View the 2025 U.S. Winners and Entries<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

View the 2025 International Winning Entries<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artwork above by Lottie Schmutz. U.S. students Lottie Schmutz (Wyoming) and Lalitha Kuchipudi (Virginia) captured first place honors in their respective age categories at the FAI International Young Artists Contest. They are two of the nine artists who placed nationally through the coordinated efforts of the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO) Center for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31760,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98,115,90,64,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-education","category-national-news","category-news-release","category-virginia","category-wyoming"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyoming-artwork-2025-Intl-winner.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31759","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=31759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31762,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31759\/revisions\/31762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}