Students’ focus propels Harkness class to national aviation design contest title

Posted On Wednesday September 28, 2022
Group-Celebration
Students in the Aviation Technology program at Erie 1 BOCES’ Harkness Career and Technical Center pose for a photo as they celebrated winning the 2022 General Aviation Manufacturers Association Aviation Design Challenge.

An attention to the small details made a big difference for students in the Aviation Technology program at Erie 1 BOCES’ Harkness Career and Technical Center, propelling their plane design to first place in a national competition.

“It was just the minor things that came together to become the winning plane,” said Connor LaPenna, a recent graduate from the Frontier Central School District who was one of the seniors on the team. “It was about making a little change here, little change there.”

Beyond the satisfaction of a job well done, the students’ work also allowed multiple team members to travel to Washington to learn about the aviation industry and potential careers.

The 2022 General Aviation Manufacturers Association Aviation Design Challenge, featuring more than 65 high school teams across 28 states, combined a curriculum of flight and airplane principles with the design challenge. The win is the first for the Harkness program in the annual competition since 2018. The program also had a pair of runner-up finishes in 2019 and 2020.  

“This crop of seniors did the work, they did everything,” said instructor Thomas Leach. “They took the knowledge given to them and ran with it. They earned this win based on their level of understanding and drive to make this happen.”

Teams in the competition were tasked with modifying a CubCrafters NX Cub with a nosewheel to deliver a maximum payload from Seattle, Wash., to Packwood, Wash., and landing on a small runway surrounded by high terrain. Teams were scored based on a series a performance parameters, along with a checklist of steps involved in a demonstration flight and a video submission recapping what they learned.

To tackle the project, the class was broken up into multiple teams, each developing and testing different ideas. As the deadline approached, the groups’ work was combined to make the final plane design.

“If something doesn't work, we have to go to the drawing board and figure out why it didn't work,” said LaPenna, who managed one of the student teams. “It gave us the evolutionary element of designing the plane.”

Helping the seniors’ work were the juniors in the program, who would take simulator test flights with the seniors’ designs based on certain flight altitude and speed goals. Given the time required for test flights, it was critical that the student designers rapidly improve their designs.

“We could feel the stress. We were hoping everything would work out,” said Trinity Vega, a Cheektowaga-Sloan Union Free School District senior who was one of the junior test pilots.

Despite facing the pressure of the competition’s deadline, the students were able to prepare a final design, one that the judges scored as the best in the competition.

“It was an amazing to find out that we won,” LaPenna said. “It was a shock, it was joyful and it was great to experience that as a class.”

The victory meant a group from the class was able to travel to Washington to tour the facilities of manufacturers like CubCrafters, Boeing and Signature Aviation, and experience moments like seeing the U.S. Navy Blue Angels take off for one of their flights.

Students who were able to be a part of the trip said that it helped them see a future in the aviation industry.

“I saw a lot of thing that I didn’t even think of before,” said Erin Hinphy, a Hamburg Central School District senior who also served as a test pilot during her junior year. “It gave me a lot of ideas outside of what I had expected.”

Before they can take off after their own aviation dreams, this year’s seniors have some work to do. They’ll have the chance to take part in the 2023 competition starting this winter.

The seniors on the winning Harkness team included Matthew Brooder (Lancaster Central School District), Zach Cid (Williamsville Central School District), Tyler Doran (Frontier Central School District), Joseph Illos (Williamsville Central School District), Connor LaPenna (Frontier Central School District), Mark Maglietto (Lancaster Central School District), Ethan Mouyeos (Williamsville Central School District), Ryan Myers (Frontier Central School District), Christian Pendola (Grand Island Central School District), Tyler Robertson (Depew Union Free School District), Maverick Roth (Orchard Park Central School District), Thomas Schumacher (Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda Union Free School District), Thomas Shine (Akron Central School District), Yulian Sirakov (Williamsville Central School District), Jessica Thompson (Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda Union Free School District), Aidan Vogt (Frontier Central School District) and Bryce Zeltman (Hamburg Central School District).

More information about the Aviation Technology program at Erie 1 BOCES can be found at https://www.e1b.org/en/k-12-education-programs/aviation-technology.aspx.