Texas A&M Named Finalist in SUAS Competition

FLEYE SPY,  a seven-member team from the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M, was selected as a finalist and awarded funding to build a scaled prototype of their conceptual design during the Spring 2013 semester. They will compete against three other teams from Oklahoma State University, St. Louis University and Purdue University.

The teams were selected for funding based on a design proposal submitted in December. Each team will receive up to $30,000 to construct a functioning SUAS based on their design. This award was sponsored by DHS Science and Technology. Representatives from Homeland Security will visit Texas A&M in April for flight vehicle demonstrations.
 
Members of the FLEYE SPY team include Brandon Baker, Jason Bolen, Steven DeHoog, Alexander Herring, Christopher Maguire, David Lerohl and Colton Sandman, with Yogesh Babbar serving as the graduate teaching assistant and faculty advisers Col. Wayne Lutz and Dr. Thomas Strganac.
 
The seven students are congratulated for their initiative, energy and creativity provided. This project was an integral part of their AERO 401/AERO 402 Aircraft Capstone Design Course that takes a team through conceptual to preliminary paper designs, through wind-tunnel testing, airframe fabrication, and scaled vehicle flight tests.