WASHINGTON, July 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency has given top graduate team honors in its airline design competition to Georgia Tech, with undergraduate honors given Virginia Tech.
Sixty-one students from 14 colleges and universities around the world offered their view of what the next generation of airliners and cargo planes might look like in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's annual competition.
Students were asked to create a future subsonic transport aircraft that could carry up to 50,000 pounds, operate on runways 1,500-3,000 feet long, use alternative fuels, cruise at speeds between 595 and 625 mph and be quieter and more environmentally friendly than today's commercial fleet.
"The invention, imagination and engineering exhibited in these college proposals was extraordinary and … bode well for the future of civilian aeronautics," said Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
As part of the competition, six U.S. students received a 10-week paid summer internship at one of four NASA research centers. Non-U.S. student winners received an engraved trophy and certificate.
A list of winners is available at http://aero.larc.nasa.gov/comp_awardees_univ_2008.htm.
