After three days of almost uninterrupted brainstorming and hard working at MAHEPA aircraft design hackathon, the excitement among students grew as the end approached and so did the question on which team has envisaged the best proposal. Indeed, the challenges set for designing the future hybrid-electric aircraft were not easy to address, but participants have proven that with team work and interdisciplinary knowledge valid innovative ideas and concepts do arise.
Many good solutions were proposed by students and, with no doubt, the technical committee members (coming from Pipistrel, Politecnico di Milano, DLR and TU Delft) have had a hard time selecting the best one. After careful deliberation, the committee members finally announced the winning team whose members are Thomas KOOPMAN student of Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology, Alberto FAVIER – student of Aerospace Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, Vasja PLESEC – student of Mechanical Engineering at University of Maribor and Kristian KIERULF – student of Industrial Design at Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus. The winning team’s proposal convinced the technical committee with its innovative configuration definition, excellent layout solution and a balanced presentation of economic and technical aspects.
The hackathon outcomes are not to be under looked. The participating students gained new knowledge, skills and hopefully made new friends while MAHEPA project was enriched with new and fresh perspective on future development of hybrid-electric aircraft designs and future potential micro-feeder services. It can undoubtedly be said: “We are all winners of MAHEPA design hackathon where the prize is not in monetary value but in thriving experience of changing the future of air travel”.
