Airbus announces the five finalists for its 'Fly Your Ideas' competition to find future environmental solutions
Thu 7 May 2009 – Airbus has chosen five university student teams from Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America to go forward to the final next month of its ‘Fly Your Ideas’ challenge to develop creative ideas that could help shape the future of aviation and deliver further reductions in the industry’s impact on the environment. More than 2,350 students representing 225 teams from 82 countries originally entered the competition launched last October, from which 86 teams were selected for the second round.
·‘COz’ from the University of Queensland, Australia for its proposal on the use of bio composite cabin materials made from castor plant natural fibres;
·‘Kometa Brno’ from Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic, whose team developed a project on aircraft taxiway movements using electro-motors;
·‘Solaire Voyager’ from the National University of Singapore, selected for its solar cell technology project integrating photovoltaic cells aboard aircraft to generate electricity; and
·‘Stanford ADG’ from Stanford University in the US for its proposal on inverted V formation flight, building on the model of migrating birds to reduce energy consumption.
“Selecting the five teams was incredibly difficult as the projects submitted were very diverse and of high quality. The contest has demonstrated that students from around the world have excellent ideas for the aviation industry of tomorrow,” said Patrick Gavin, Airbus Executive Vice-President Engineering and ‘Fly Your Ideas’ patron.
The teams will now prepare their presentations before presenting them to a jury of independent experts and Airbus representatives on June 18. The first and second place teams will be announced the following day at the Paris Air Show. The winner will receive a first prize of €30,000 ($40,200), with €15,000 going to the runner-up. Additional awards will go to the team chosen by Airbus employees and to the team outside the top five with the best video presentation.
