Undergraduate and graduate teams from the Georgia Institute of Technology captured first and second place in the 2011 American Helicopter Society Student Design Competitions. This was Georgia Tech’s 28th year participating in the competition.

The American Helicopter Society’s annual competition requires undergraduate and graduate teams to design and submit proposals on a multi-mission vertical lift system that meets the requirements three different missions: search and rescue, insertion and resupply. The Georgia Tech teams competed with others from around the world.

The Georgia Tech undergraduate team won first place in this year’s competition with its rotorcraft Golden Retriever, while the graduate team placed second with its entry Odyssey.  Georgia Tech has obtained the first or second place award 27 out of the 28 years that it has competed in the AHS Student Design Competitions.

Daniel P. Schrage, professor of aerospace engineering, is the faculty mentor for both teams consisting of aerospace engineering majors. The members of the undergraduate team include Laura Armanios, Silvio Lopez, Natasha Barbely, Trevor Mohr, Andrew Carter, Michael Moyer, Dennis Garza, Kit Taylor and Gregg Hines. The graduate team consists of Sylvester Ashok, Jonathan Litwin, Raymond Beale, Marc Mugnier, Bhanu Chiguluri, Jaikrishnan Vijaykuma, Michael Jones, Xin Zhang and Jeewoong Kim.   

This year’s sponsor of the competition was Bell Helicopter Textron.

Written by Georgia Tech Communication & Marketing Student Media Member Katie McGuire.