Boeing and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), Delhi conducted the final round of the National Aeromodelling competition on Saturday. The event saw participation of over 170 teams from five Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) — Kanpur, Delhi, Bombay, Madras and Kharagpur with over 1,000 aerospace enthusiasts.
The first position in the competition was bagged by ACS College of Engineering, Bangalore and the runner-up was BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore. A panel of judges, namely Devendra Kumar Dubey, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, IIT Delhi, Srinivas Veeravalli, Professor, Applied Mechanics Department, IIT Delhi, Vijendra Nagar, president, Aeromodelling Association for India and Ashish Pallapothu, AerotriX. The aim behind the event was to provide a unified national competitive platform for students interested in aerospace and related engineering disciplines, to recognise talent in aeromodelling and inspire aerospace enthusiasts and innovators in India.
Boeing also has an ongoing partnership with IIT Mumbai for the National Centre for Aerospace Innovation & Research (NCAIR) to promote aerospace manufacturing capability development. The zonal competitions were organised in conjunction with the technical festival at IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur, IIT-Bombay and IIT Kanpur and the final National level Competition was held at IIT Delhi. A total of 14 winning zonal teams, made it to the national level.
Over 560 participants from 170 teams from across the country participated in the competition at various previous levels. Along with the competition, Boeing also sponsored aeromodelling workshops which were conducted by the respective IITs. This was an additional platform where students interested in designing and building radio-controlled planes got practical experience in designing and building them.