Autodesk Design Challenge, Fall 2020
In Fall 2020 Autodesk coordinated with the Aerospace Museum of California to sponsor a Fusion 360 design challenge. The goal was to create an innovative and effective new blade crutch design for the CH-21 Flying Banana helicopter in the Museum’s Air Park. The aircraft currently has no rotor blades mounted on the airframe. Due to space constraints, the CH-21 needs its blades to be mounted and folded back along the airframe, then crutched using effective and well designed rotor blade crutches.
Autodesk sponsored the Design Competition, then coordinated 20 student teams from 3 colleges – Los Angeles Pierce College, College of San Mateo, and Cal Poly Pomona. Eight Museum volunteer engineers, Board Members and the Executive Director of the Aerospace Museum of California judged the competition.
The experience was valuable for students especially during this tough year – internship and employment opportunities became even harder for students to come by.
Congratulations to the team of Andy Chau, Maxwell Stolarz, Max Quinn, and Roberto Santos of Los Angeles Pierce College, crowned the Grand Prize winner of the Design Competition. Autodesk awarded the team $900 for their outstanding design. Fabricating the crutches will be the next step in this journey.
Check out the winning team’s design video here.
