Check out this article about the winners of the GAMA/Build A Plane 2017 Aviation Design Challenge and how they will build a Glasair Sportsman airplane!
Photo courtesy of NoPlaneNoGain.org
Winners of the GAMA/Build A Plane 2017 Aviation Design Challenge – the team from Olney High School in Olney, TX – will spend the next two weeks building a Glasair Sportsman airplane at Glasair Aviation in Arlington, WA, working alongside the airplane’s owner Ken Baur and his son Mike and the staff at Glasair Aviation.
Students Bryant Castro, Kodee Scott, Michael Gomez and Amber McCutcheon, along with teacher Sabrina Laurent, won the all-expenses-paid trip to assemble the Sportsman as part of the fifth annual Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) competition.
The value of general aviation, including business aviation, in supporting high-skill, high-wage American jobs, like those involved in the STEM professions has been a central theme of the No Plane No Gain initiative.
GAMA member companies are sponsoring the team’s travel, lodging and meals. The builder of last year’s plane, Dennis Willows, will provide the students with a tour of the University of Washington, San Juan Island, and a look at the plane built by last year’s challenge winners.
This year’s competition attracted 93 entries from high schools in 31 states and Washington, DC. The schools used “Fly to Learn” curricula and training, including software powered by X-Plane, to learn the basics of aerodynamic engineering.
The Aviation Design Challenge was launched in 2013 to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) knowledge among U.S. high school students through aviation – which also is a goal of the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign.
This article was originally posted on NoPlaneNoGain.org
