Eyes fixed on the sky above him, V Srihari takes a step back and launches his glider. It flies briefly before landing on the ground. Before his second try, he checks the direction of the wind.
“This is a triangle delta force design. If the glider has thin, long wings, it will generate too much of a lift and it will not stay up in the air for long,” the 12-year-old aeromodelling enthusiast explains. His stays afloat for exactly 3.
77 seconds. Srihari was one among the many enthusiasts (totalling to 150 teams), both from schools and colleges, who gathered at the grounds of Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science on an overcast day, to have their innovations take to the skies as a part of an aeromodelling competition. Around 150 teams from schools and colleges in Chennai and other cities participated in across the junior category which had a ‘chuck glider’ competition, a ‘fixed wing micro’ competition for the senior category, and an open category, which required participants to showcase their ‘RC (remote control) model’ aircrafts in designated loop maneuvering and dropping a designated payload.
From being an area of interest when they were younger, a developing hobby, or even as an activity they first got introduced to on YouTube, every participant at the competition had a story to tell about their passion for the wings in the skies. Commercial airplanes flying above his house prompted Syed Rayan to seek out videos online to learn aeromodelling. A student of.
