If the dreams of R. Anusha and S. Srinath, final year students of Chennai’s College of Engineering, Guindy, could take wing, it would be in the form of a futuristic transport jet with a sleek blended body. Anusha, a final year mechanical engineering student and Srinath, a third year student of geo-informatics, were adjudged runners-up in the international category of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Fundamental Aeronautics Contest 2007-08, for their conceptual design of a futuristic subsonic airplane. They were selected from among 14 teams and two individual students from colleges and universities around the world who submitted designs for this annual NASA-sponsored contest. Last October they flew to Atlanta, USA to present their prize winning paper at a three-day NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Meet, and receive their award.

“We cherish the opportunity we got to meet some of the best NASA engineers and experts at the Atlanta meet,” says Anusha.

Aerodynamics has been a parallel study field for this inventive duo since they entered the Guindy College in 2004 and 2005 respectively, and the two spend most of their spare time reading about aerodynamics, trawling the internet and experimenting with balsa wood airplane models. They’ve also had ample opportunity to indulge their interest as members of the organising committee of aeromodelling contests held at Anna University’s annual international techno-management festival, Kurukshetra.

Therefore, when Anusha stumbled across the announcement for the contest while browsing the NASA website in January 2008, she decided to team up with Srinath. With the help of their research guide Dr. E. Natarajan, who served as their faculty advisor, the duo designed a unique “blended wing body aircraft”. “We were asked to submit the design of a subsonic aircraft that could take off on short runways and offer fuel efficiency while being environment friendly and less noisy than the existing commercial airplanes,” recalls Srinath.

Looking ahead, the engineers’ priority is to excel in this field of study. Anusha plans to pursue postgraduate studies abroad in aerospace techno-logy and return to India. Srinath plans to do his postgrad studies in photo-grammetry (aerial photography for creating maps) and research this area.

Concise, clear and focused, these youngsters are poised for a smooth take off.

Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)