On February 5th, the BHS Real World Design Team found out that they have won first place in the State of Kansas competition for the second year in a row!  That means that the team of Carson Barnes, Brandon Baltzell, Mason Johnson, Shelby Gregory, Carrie Deitz, Mac Halpin and Austin Kraus will be going to Washington D.C. all expenses paid to compete at Nationals. This project couldn’t have been completed without some very dedicated team members that were willing to give up their personal time on weekends and holidays to work on it. Also, the expert coaching of Sandy Barnes was an important factor in our winning. These students have learned what is involved in a real life engineering project, and how a team is more than the sum of it’s members.  “I am very proud of them!” said sponsor, Pam Davis.

The Real World Design Project is designed so that there is no one correct answer.  Each jet empennage starts with an original tail cone, and then there are hundreds of airfoils to choose from  for the horizontal and vertical stabilizers.  After you have made several original jet tails that are the correct size and shape to be compatible with the given fuselage and wings, you test them with fluid dynamics software that simulates a wind tunnel.You submit one of your designs, and wait for the judges to decide which is best.

The software we use is the same as the software used by CESSNA and KU to design their jets. The 3 software packages are not easy to master, and so the team learned patience while working with our project support staff online and by phone.  One of the most important skills is learning to quit for the day, and come back later to ask more questions and regroup.  It is a very difficult project, and over half of the teams in Kansas did not complete it.

Nationals is March 26th-28th in Washington D.C., and before then we need to do another similar project to the one we did, and then perfect our PowerPoint presentation and our 30 page engineering journal.  Every member of the team has to know the project thoroughly enough to present their part orally in front of a panel of industry experts. We finished 5th in the nation last year, but I know we are much better prepared than we were last year, so I am excited about the possibilities.