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09/07/2018 | Berichte aus den Bereichen | Campus-Meldung

Kassel students excel in the "Steel Flies 2018" competition

Flying objects made of steel should be able to fly? Some people will certainly answer this question in the negative. But when young students give free rein to their creativity, flying objects are created that break records. This year, the most creative minds in the "Steel Flies 2018" competition came from Kassel. With their gliders, they were able to clearly dominate the competition and thus secured the top two places on the winners' podium.

Image: FG Metallic Materials.

Success and enthusiasm for the disciplines of mechanical engineering and materials technology go hand in hand. Says the project's lead scientist from Kassel, Dr. Django Baunack: "Time and again it becomes apparent that we need to offer precisely such formats as early as possible in their studies in order to awaken young students' enthusiasm for engineering work."

In 2018, teams from renowned institutes at RWTH Aachen University, TU Darmstadt, TU Dortmund University, Saarland University and even two international teams from Ain Shams University (Cairo - Egypt) took part in the international "Steel Flies" competition organized by the Research Association for Steel Applications (FOASTA) alongside the mechanical engineering students from Kassel. Twelve teams presented their approach and implementation of the project work "Steel flying machine" in front of professors, scientists, students and press representatives at the TU Darmstadt. Eleven teams were then allowed to compete in the practical competition in the Frankfurt exhibition halls. The aim was to achieve the highest possible combination of flight time and flight distance with a flying object developed and manufactured by the teams themselves, made solely from materials with a minimum iron content of 70%.

The Department of Metallic Materials of the IfW at the University of Kassel was able to qualify eleven prospective engineers in three teams for the competition as part of the course "Introduction to Project Work: Construction and Testing of a Metal Aircraft". Two ended up in the first two places.

After the successful competition, Thomas Wegener, also supervising research assistant, found the right words: " We would like to thank the host, the Institute of Production Engineering and Forming Machines at TU Darmstadt, the organizer, the Institute of Image Forming at RWTH Aachen University, the initiator and sponsor, FOSTA e.V., and of course our students for an all-round successful event."

Link to the video of the event:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGCPVhGf-kMGJtLI_Ygw5RQ/playlists


Django Baunack