HCE students shine in NASA contest

Updated on: Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Two students of the Hindustan College of Engineering have done their institute proud in its silver jubilee year with their innovative team work. Bernad Adaikalaraj and Manoj G., final-year aeronautical engineering students of the college, participated in the NASA contest 2009-10 and secured the highest score under the non-U.S. team category.

The duo has received trophies and certificates from the NASA for their innovative and original designing of amphibious rotor combined sub-sonic tilt rotor.

The tilt rotor designed by the team consists of three engines. While the two engines are located on both sides of the wings acting as tilt rotors during operations, the third one, fitted in the front side, performs the helicopter operation.

“During cruise, the rear engines are tilted using hydraulic power like in a normal aircraft. During take-off, landing and hovering, all three engines are in vertical position and this lifts the aircraft,” explains Bernard.

The drawings and 3D design image created using the CATIA software by the team provides weight estimation and performance calculations. The tilt rotor has an estimated cruise speed of 300 knots, design range of 800 nm, can carry up to 50 passengers, and most importantly, it can take off from water or land and also land on water or on land.

“The design also enables vertical take-off and landing,” says Manoj. “This tilt rotor can hover for long time, can fly in high altitude and range compared to a helicopter, and thus it is best suitable for multi-mission usage in defence and navy, in disaster management” he adds.

NASA has published the results of its design competition, and details about this Chennai team's abstract, concept and images can be viewed at the NASA website.

Team Arush of Hindustan Engineering College took up designing and building a twin-seater experimental autogyro as part of its student project.

Ashmitha, Dhileeban, Elanseran, Ganapathiraman and Kotnis have designed the autogyro, a flying machine that costs one tenth of a helicopter. It uses less fuel and is safe and fun to fly.

Autogyros are rotary wing aircraft to fly with sufficient control and can take off and land anywhere needing no runway.

Honourable mention of this team can be viewed at: http://www.aeronautics.nasa.gov/competition_winners2010_college.htm

HCE students shine in NASA contest

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