The Rhodes Engineering Club is excited to announce it will participate in the Student Design Build Fly Competition, sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Spring 2017. The competition requires student teams to design, fabricate, and demonstrate the flight capabilities of an unmanned, electric powered, radio controlled aircraft that meets the specified mission profile. Rhodes was one of only three liberal arts colleges in the nation to have its proposal accepted.
The finalist field contains 104 teams from 16 different countries. The competition will take place in Tucson, AZ. Members of the team include Matthew Huber ’18, Yi Song ’18, Luke Fairbanks ’18, Zach Wall ’19, Jose Pastrana ’20, and Josh Ortega '20. The team has received assistance from Physics Technician Glen Davis and retired pilot and world-renown rc plane competitor Jim Lynch. Lynch credits his radio controlled plane success to Prof. Jack Taylor’s willingness to let him to fly these planes in the Rhodes gymnasium “back in the day.”