Tag: engineering

AIAA Announces $10,000 Scholarship in Partnership with Blue Origin’s Club for the Future

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 16, 2023 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Foundation announced today a partnership with Blue Origin’s nonprofit Club for the Future to provide a $10,000 scholarship each year to one high school senior who has demonstrated an interest in pursuing a career in aerospace engineering. The scholarship is known as “AIAA and Club for the Future’s Resilient Student Scholarship.”

Students can apply here. Applications are due by 31 January 2024.

Any high school senior enrolling in a STEM program at a college, university, or technical institution who matches other qualifying criteria will be eligible. In addition to the $10,000 award, the recipient will be matched with an AIAA professional member to serve as a mentor. The scholarship will be offered to high school seniors who are AIAA members; high school membership in AIAA is free. The scholarship is specifically designed to empower and inspire students who have faced unique challenges, including but not limited to: students with disabilities; from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds, gender minorities, or disadvantaged socioeconomic circumstances; and first-generation college students.

Students who apply for this scholarship will be asked to describe why they are interested in aerospace and write about their vision for their future career in the aerospace field. They also must submit a short personal essay on their values of compassion, tenacity, and resilience, and how they have used one or all of these traits to problem-solve or accomplish something in their life.

This scholarship follows other support for aerospace young talent development provided to the AIAA Foundation by Blue Origin’s Club for the Future, including a $1 million grant in 2021 for educational programs.

“Club for the Future is proud to empower future innovators to explore the boundless opportunities of space through STEM careers for the benefit of Earth,” said Heather Nelson, director of Club for the Future.

Basil Hassan, chair, AIAA Foundation, recognizes that the scholarship partnership with Blue Origin’s Club for the Future offers an exciting pathway to develop new engineering talent for the aerospace industry. “Giving students a chance to focus their immediate future on aerospace has been one of the goals of the AIAA Foundation since its inception in 1996,” he said. “We have chosen National Scholarship Month to roll out this new program as a way of bringing extra attention to a life-defining opportunity for a graduating high school student. The recipient of this scholarship will be able to explore aerospace engineering in greater detail and develop their expertise in one of the fastest growing industries in the world.”

For more information, visit aiaa.org/foundation.

AIAA Media Contact: Rebecca B. Gray, [email protected], 804-397-5270 cell

About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit aiaa.org, or follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

About Club for the Future
Founded by Blue Origin, Club for the Future is a foundation whose mission is to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM for the benefit of Earth. The Club and its collaborators are doing this through Postcards to Space, space-inspired lessons and events, and access to space on Blue Origin’s rockets. For more information visit, ClubforFuture.org.

US Spaceplane to Return to Orbit on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy

FlightGlobal reports that the secretive “spaceplane” operated by the US Space Force (USSF) “will return to orbit for its seventh long-endurance mission, this time aboard the world’s largest commercial rocket.” The USSF “announced the Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) will launch on 7 December from Cape Canaveral, Florida for the ultra-long endurance spacecraft’s seventh mission.” The announcement “comes almost exactly one year after the X-37B landed from its sixth flight mission in November 2022.” That flight, which “launched in May 2020, lasted 908 days and carried a solar energy experiment for the US Navy and a satellite for the US Air Force Academy.” The goal “of the latest orbital flight, dubbed X-37B Mission 7 or OTV-7, is to experiment with new space technologies aimed at furthering the ‘safe, stable, and secure operations in space for all users,’ the USSF says.”
Full Story (FlightGlobal)

GE Aerospace’s XA100 Engine Completes Third Phase of Ground Tests

Aviation Week reports that “GE Aerospace has wrapped a third phase of ground tests on its XA100 adaptive turbofan engine, as it continues to press for support to re-engine the F-35 with its proposal.” Breaking Defense reports that according to David Tweedie, GE Aerospace Vice President and General Manager for Advanced Defense Products, the third phase of testing, “conducted in the company’s Evendale test cell, ran between April and June 2023. Through it, GE engineers collected reams of new data and pursued some new approaches. For example, the company tested different elements of the flight envelope, and Tweedie said that ‘there’s ways to reconfigure the engine to go exercise it in different ways to understand performance derivatives, and other things.’” GE hopes that the data gathered from the “third round of testing will bolster its efforts to mature adaptive engine technology – cutting edge propulsion that can offer capability improvements like greater fuel efficiency and more thrust over legacy engines.”
Full Story (Aviation Week); More Info (Breaking Defense)

Bell Promoting Range of Helicopters at Dubai Air Show

FlightGlobal reports, “Bell is promoting a range of helicopters at this year’s Dubai Air Show, including the Bell 429 configured for parapublic missions and the Bell 505, which has proven popular as a trainer. Two Bell helicopters are in the static display at the show: a Bell 429 operated by the Abu Dhabi Police and a Bell 407M used by an undisclosed military customer.” The Bell 429 “features an electro-optical/infrared sensor with an operator’s station. It also has a winch, spotlight, and a beam across the top of the cabin that allows special forces to conduct fast-roping descents.” According to FlightGlobal, the “two helicopters are part of a broader Textron Aviation presence at this year’s show, which also includes fixed-wing aircraft.”
Full Story (FlightGlobal)

Rocket Scientist Quarterback Moves Team Towards the NFL Playoffs

A profile of NFL quarterback Josh Dobbs in The Wall Street Journal discussed his background in aerospace engineering, including his two NFL offseasons moonlighting at NASA. The piece also discusses Dobbs participation as part of a team of Tennessee students participating in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Design/Build/Fly competition, where the team had to launch a model airplane they built.
Full Story (The Wall Street Journal – Subscription Publication)

Joshua Dobbs Highlighted

The Star Tribune spotlights Joshua Dobbs, the Vikings new quarterback, who majored in aerospace engineering at the University of Tennessee and was involved with AIAA’s Design/Build/Fly competition.
Full Story (The Star Tribune)

 

Video

Josh Dobbs receives congratulations from coaches and teammates following his comeback win, days after being traded to the Minnesota Vikings
(Bleacher Report; YouTube)

Future Space Missions Are Being Designed to Take Advantage of New Generation of Very Large Launch Vehicles

The Space Review reported on future space missions being designed “to take advantage of a new generation of very large launch vehicles” that will “offer greater mass and volume” at lower prices. SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s New Glenn have been considered as possible options for several NASA missions. NASA’s expensive Space Launch System has also been examined for future missions, although it will only be used for Artemis missions through the late 2020s. Panelists at the ASCEND space event “argued that science missions were needed to increase the SLS flight rate and make that vehicle more sustainable.”
Full Story (The Space Review)