Undergraduate Competition

The Harpy (2023)

with the United States Military Academy at West Point

Title: High-Speed Vertical Takeoff and Landing (HSVTOL) Aircraft

Challenge: Design a large VTOL aircraft that would balance sustained hover operations with high-speed and high-altitude cruise capabilities.

Team: Abinay Brown, Walther Chong (Team Leader), William Henry, Maxwell Hoem, Gray Simmons, Anisha Singh, Andrew Sohn

Result: 1st place

Helluvacopter (2018)

Title: A Reconfigurable VTOL Aircraft

Challenge: Design a Group 3 size unmanned VTOL aircraft that achieves high-speed forward flight (relative to current VTOL aircraft) and efficient hover through the use of novel reconfigurable propulsive and lifting devices.

Team: Chris Butterfield, Danielle Hughes, Hanh Nguyen, Kihoon Oh, Dongjin Park, Joshua Peterson, Kaushik Reddy

Result: 2nd place

24 Hour Buzz (2017)

Title: 24 Hour Hovering Machine Conceptual Design

Challenge: Design a heavier-than-air flying machine that could hover for 24 hours over three stations 1 km apart, carrying a human-sized payload of 80 kg.

Result: 3rd place

Valkyrie (2016)

Title: Air Launched Unmanned Disaster Relief Delivery Vehicle

Challenge: Design an unmanned rotorcraft, capable of deployment from the ramp of an in-flight C-130J cargo airplane. The rotorcraft needed to arrest its descent and transition into its own flight mode to deliver supplies to remote areas from a hover and subsequently return to a recovery base.

Team: Jada Green, Charles Pinckney, Colin Gurry, James Hubert, Jared Lee, Killian Wagner, Stephanie Wagner

Result: 2nd place

AirBuzz (2015)

with the Middle East Technical University

Title: Distributed Logistics in an Urban Setting Using Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Challenge: The competition for “Distributed Logistics in an Urban Setting Using Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” provided challenging tasks for undergraduate student teams to complete a vehicle design, while graduate student teams completed a systems design. In addition, there was an optional task for undergraduate and graduate teams for planning and conducting a hardware validation activity.

Result: 1st place

HARETC (2015)

with the Middle East Technical University

Title: Distributed Logistics in an Urban Setting Using Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Challenge: The competition for “Distributed Logistics in an Urban Setting Using Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” provided challenging tasks for undergraduate student teams to complete a vehicle design, while graduate student teams completed a systems design. In addition, there was an optional task for undergraduate and graduate teams for planning and conducting a hardware validation activity.

Result: 3rd place

The Hammerhead (2014)

Title: X-VTOL

Challenge: Design an experimental Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft — an X-VTOL — which is intended to establish key performance attributes to enable transformational mission capabilities on an objective aircraft. These include efficient sustained hover, long-range cruise, high useful loads and sustained flight at high speeds.

Team: Benjamin England, Andy Smith, Christopher Duffy, Nicholas Demorest, Nicholas Motahari, Jonathan Johnson, Kenneth Butler, Kuhnen Desai, Tuure Pasto, and Bernard Tidimane

Result: 2nd place

Project Raven (2014)

Title: X-VTOL

Challenge: Design an experimental Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft — an X-VTOL — which is intended to establish key performance attributes to enable transformational mission capabilities on an objective aircraft. These include efficient sustained hover, long-range cruise, high useful loads and sustained flight at high speeds.

Team: Andrew Aldrich, Clifford Sircar, Brett Kubica, Michael Ross, Joshua Bareket, William Keller, Brendan Haber, Mateus Pereira, Ethan Sarikas, and Yuanji Zhu

Result: 3rd place

BADGER (2012)

with the Middle East Technical University

Title: Rotary Winged Pylon Racer

Challenge: Design a purpose built helicopter to race on a prescribed pylon course. Graduate students were required to submit a simulation package video.

Team: Eliya Wing, Juan Pablo Afman, Michael Avera, Michael Burn, Christopher Cofelice, Peter Johnson, Robert Lee, Ian Moore, Travis Smith, Gökçin Çınar, Özge Sinem Özçakmak, and Yakut Cansev Küçükosman

Result: 1st place

Golden Retriever (2011)

Title: Multi-Mission Aircraft

Challenge: Design a multi-mission vertical lift system that optimally blends the competing requirements of three very different missions — Search and Rescue, Insertion and Resupply. The aircraft must be reconfigurable.

Team: Laura Armanios, Silvio Lopez, Natasha Barbely, Trevor Mohr, Andrew Carter, Michael Moyer, Dennis Garza, Kit Taylor, and Gregg Hines

Result: 1st place

GyrBlitz (2009)

Title: Non-Conventional Rotor Drive

Challenge: Design a new, non-conventional rotor/drive system for a helicopter, starting from a current, in-service design with MTOW between 3500 and 5500 kgm, and including all necessary subsystems that will endow the new design with improved performance in terms of speed, range, payload, endurance and noise signature.

Team: Collin Brown, Robert Price, Eric Singh, Robert Ruch, Fady Gaied, Tyler Trawick, Priyam Gore, Chung-Kai Wang, Thomas Keister, and Austin Klaus

Result: 1st place

Ecocopter (2008)

Title: Advanced VTOL Concept “SMART – COPTER” Minimizing Energy Consumption

Challenge: Design an advanced VTOL “SMART-COPTER” concept capable of operating from an unprepared area and which minimizes energy consumption throughout the operational envelope

Result: 2nd place

Advanced Deployable Compact Rotorcraft (2007)

Title: Advanced Deployable Compact Rotorcraft in support of Special Operation Forces

Challenge: Design an advanced manned VTOL Approach and Recovery Vehicle (ARV) that is capable of operating from a submersible vehicle in support of Special Operations Forces, and an advanced Unmanned Escort Vehicle (UEV) that is capable of supporting the operations of the ARV.

Result: 2nd place

Older competitions:

2000:

Challenge: Develop an autonomous rotorcraft for exploration of Mars. The mission was to be a proof-of-concept demonstration for rotary wing flight in the Martian atmosphere.

Result: 1st place (Vehicle Design)

1995:

Challenge: Design a UAV capable of extracting two people, delivering a payload capsule weighing up to 400 lbs., and equipped with video surveillance.

Result: 1st place