Rotor Blade Innovator Honored

The innovator behind the rotor blade technology used on the fastest helicopter produced will be inducted into the A. James Clark School of Engineering's Innovation Hall of Fame at the University of Maryland, College Park in November.

According to a release from the school, Ashish Bagai, a Clark School aerospace engineering alumnus, is an aerodynamicist. He was principal engineer at Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. in 2010 when a team of Sikorsky engineers built the Sikorsky X2 Technology DemonstratorTM (X2), a helicopter that can fly 100mph faster than current production models, with increased maneuverability, endurance, and high-altitude performance.

The Sikorsky team earned the prestigious Robert J. Collier Trophy--one of aviation's highest honors--for its innovation. The X2 will, according to the company, change the way helicopters operate, delivering higher speeds and radically improved performance in medical, search and rescue and military applications, while maintaining the efficient hovering and low-speed attributes of conventional rotorary-wing aircraft. Bagai was responsible for the aerodynamic design of the aircraft's main rotor blades, a key element in its success.

Today, Bagai is a program manager at the Tactical Technology Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. He obtained his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees ('90, '92, '95) at the Clark School's Department of Aerospace Engineering (AE) and worked in the department's Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center. He cites as a primary mentor his advisor, internationally recognized rotorcraft aerodynamics expert and Minta Martin Professor of Engineering J. Gordon Leishman, plus professors Alfred Gessow, James Baeder, Roberto Celi, and Inderjit Chopra.

"I had the privilege of attending one of the finest schools for rotary-wing education and research," Bagai says. "It brought very significant advantages: use of some of the best research facilities, unlimited access to information, and exposure to and interaction with world-class experts. Faculty members were constantly pushing new areas of research and then rolling their findings into the curriculum. Ultimately, it was the capability of calculated independent thinking fostered by the Clark School that helped lead to the X2 rotor design."

Excerpted from a press release from the A. James Clark School of Engineering. Click here to read the full report on Herald Online.