Bangladeshi students win “Best New Entrant” award at international aircraft design competition

Eight Bangladeshi students – Abullah Al Aziz, Md Samiullah Prodhan, Niloy Chowdhury, Md Ridoan Hasan, Samia Islam, Md Abir Rahman, Nushrat Binte Alam, and Kawser Miah – from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Aviation and Aerospace University (BSMRAAU) secured the award for "Best New Entrant" at the 41st Annual Student Design Competition organised by the Vertical Flight Society (VFS) in the United States.

As per their executive summary submitted to the competition, the team's unmanned aircraft system (UAS), called Airborne Phoenix, is a coaxial rotorcraft consisting of an aerodynamically efficient airfoil shaped fuselage, payload bay, and NOTAR – no tail rotor – system to achieve directional yaw and optimised stability.

VFS is a non-profit, charitable educational and technical organisation, and is the world's oldest and largest technical society. The organisation is dedicated to enhancing the understanding of vertical flight technology. Originally founded as the American Helicopter Society (AHS) in 1943, VFS has been the primary forum for interchange of information on vertical flight technology.

The latest Student Design Competition organised by VFS was entitled, "Multi-Mission Modular UAS for Disaster Relief". The goal of this year's competition was to design a multi-mission, modular, VTOL UAS that can take-off and land vertically from ship decks in gusty conditions, cruise to and from disaster sites, and serve as a long-endurance communications relay, or land vertically to deliver relief supplies.