Universities Heavy Lift Challenge

Sunday 11 June 2006 saw the climax of the Universities Heavy Lift Challenge in which a group of the University of Sheffield's year 2 Aerospace Engineering students participated. The annual competition, which is organised by the British Model Flying Association and BAE Systems, requires students to design and fly load-carrying model aircraft, controlled by radio. The competition stretches the ability of the students and provides an excellent opportunity to apply the theoretical concepts to a practical application. The development of a good machine requires each team to display design flair, technical knowledge and understanding and a healthy degree of pragmatism, which are very useful qualities in any prospective engineer.

Pavel Beliav, Richard Boynton, Jason Forshaw, Myat Htoo, Jan Kaniewski and Kenneth King formed team "Phoenix" and were the first time ever participants from the University of Sheffield. Many months of building the aircraft culminated in the flying day which took place at Elvington Airfield near York. Our team had great fun building the aircraft and learnt a great deal of use not only to themselves but to other Sheffield students who will follow in their footsteps. In order to inspire and help future students, they have written special web pages that will be included on the Aerospace Engineering website.

One of the team, Jason Forshaw, won this year´s Sheffield Metallurgical and Engineering Association Prize Hatfield Memorial Prize, competing against all other students in the Faculty. He is spending the summer working at Rolls-Royce in Derby validating the ignition model for the Trent 1000 engine. He and another team member, Jan Kaniewski, will spend the third year of their course at Virginia Tech in the USA. Aerospace Engineering has recently introduced a new course MEng with a Year in North America.