Disaster Relief Is The Theme For This Year's Challenge

The Request for Proposals for the 33rd Annual AHS International Student Design Competition, sponsored by Bell Helicopter, is now posted. The 2016 challenge was developed by the American Helicopter Society (AHS) International Student Design Competition Steering Committee.

Recent events have underscored the importance of vertical lift in disaster relief missions. The Nepal earthquake and cyclone Pam that struck Vanuatu left thousands of people stranded in remote locations with no food, water, medical supplies or shelter. Manned helicopters and tilt-rotors were essential in reaching populated areas, with space to safely land, and deliver needed supplies and evacuate the seriously injured.  In many instances, the local airports were overwhelmed and slowed the flow of assistance.

Aerial drones were used in Vanuatu to help search for victims in remote areas, but were not of sufficient size to deliver any meaningful supplies.

For the competition, AHS has proposed the design of an unmanned rotorcraft, capable of deployment from the ramp of a C-130J in flight. The rotorcraft must arrest its descent and transition into its own flight mode to precisely deliver supplies to remote areas from a hover and then return to a predetermined base for recovery. Packaging the rotorcraft to maximize payload (supplies) while constrained by the space available in a C-130J cabin will be a primary metric in scoring each team’s design.

Certificates of achievement will be presented to each member of the winning teams and to their faculty advisors for display at their school.  The first place winner or team representative for the graduate and undergraduate categories will be expected to present a technical summary of their design at the 2017 AHS International Annual Forum in Ft. Worth, Texas, USA.  Presenters receive complimentary registration and the representative will be provided up to $1000 in expenses to help defray the cost of attendance.
 
A Letter of Intent to participate must be received no later than February 9, 2016 and must include the team members, whether it is a graduate or undergraduate team, their faculty sponsor and email addresses for all participants. Requests for information and clarification will be accepted continuously but must be received no later than April 27, 2016.

All responses will be posted by March 26.  Proposals must be submitted no later than May 29, 2016. AHS Headquarters will notify the winners in August 2016. 

Bell Helicopter will provide the funds for the awards through AHS International.

FMI: www.vtol.org/sdc