Society News

The Cobham Team (from left: Matt Kennedy, Sally Longstaff, David Hewer, Michael O'Sullivan) receive the AeroChallenge trophy from the Chairman of the RAeS Young Persons Board, Mark Lees.

This year’s Royal Aeronautical Society AeroChallenge Event was held on 24 February at the society headquarters in London. The event, which has been has been run annually since 1980, followed a similar format to previous years. Teams from aerospace companies and universities competed in a university challenge style quiz to test their aerospace knowledge. Between quiz rounds, they had to design and build a model flying machine capable of completing a set challenge. The combination of these two tasks tested the teams’ design skills, decision making and teamwork in a time pressured environment.
This year’s ‘egg race’ design and build challenge was to design and construct an aircraft that could stay in the air for the longest time. In an added twist, each aircraft had to be disassembled into modules so that the whole model could fit into an A4 envelope and be passed through a letter box before the flight. Minimal reassembly was allowed before launch. The challenge was won by Bath Ospreys, a team from the University of Bath. 
Each team competed in two quiz heats during the first part of the day, with the top eight teams progressing to the quarter final rounds. After lunch and the egg race fly-off, all of the competitors gathered in the Bill Boeing Room to watch the semi-finals and final of the quiz.
Two exciting semi-finals resulted in Cobham and University of the Highlands & Islands Team A facing each other in the final. The final was a close contest but, the Cobham team’s knowledge of the F-35, together with some good answers to a difficult picture round resulted in them winning the AeroChallenge Shield. The team will also be given a tour of a frontline RAF squadron as a prize.

More information about AeroChallenge or any other events run by the Young Persons Board can be obtained by sending an email to youngmembers@aerosociety.com.