European aircraft manufacturing company, Airbus has named the Nigerian team among the finalists for “Fly Your Ideas 2017†student competition on new technologies and business models to shape the future of aviation.
Five team competed for the crown of most innovative and a €30,000 prize Airbus said the radical concepts selected cover a wide range of innovations going from an alternative to satellite imagery, to improved aircraft taxiing, clever ways of boarding, new areas for luggage storage or offering a new business model using existing Airbus aircraft.
Representing nine different nationalities and eight universities across Africa, Europe and Asia-Pacific, the five finalist teams embody true diversity, which is a key driver of innovation and performance. The students, competing for a €30,000 prize, also demonstrate a wide variety of disciplines from Natural Sciences to Engineering and Business.
According to Airbus, their inventive ideas were selected from over 350 entries in Airbus’ biennial global student competition, run in partnership with UNESCO. Students’ ideas had to answer one of five challenges identified by Airbus to provide sustainable future solutions. The innovations proposed by the five finalist teams look at alternative business models, passengers’ experience and flight operations.
The five finalist teams – from Australia, France, Hong Kong, Nigeria and the UK – would soon travel to Toulouse, France, where they would spend a week at the Airbus ProtoSpace facility to prototype, test and visualise their ideas using state-of-the-art equipment with personal guidance from Airbus.
“At the end of their week at Airbus, the students will present their innovative projects and the newly developed prototype in front of Airbus experts and personalities from the aerospace and academic world,†the company said.
Airbus said the ideas competing for the final prize include Airborne Earth Observation – Team SkyVision, University of Surrey, UK, which developed a radical concept that turns a commercial airliner into an ‘Earth Observation Device’ by installing equipment into the belly of the aircraft to monitor ground activity during flight. An alternative to satellite imagery, it opens up new opportunities such as ecology analysis and urban planning.