A Merlin helicopter has had to make a forced landing during a sandstorm; the landing has caused the undercarriage to fail meaning it is unable to take off from the desert. What land-based system would you build to rescue the helicopter?
This was the challenge posed to Year 9 pupils taking part in this year’s Lockheed Martin Engineering Challenge Day and it was one they grasped enthusiastically. With the help of a team of eleven engineers from Lockheed Martin pupils spent the day constructing crane systems to rescue the helicopter.
“We’ve been running this day with Lockheed Martin for six years and it is something pupils refer to as inspiration when making subject option choices over the coming years” said Ben Goad, Head of Science.
The system created by the Challenge winners had a unique feature that gave them the edge; it could be flat-packed. “We thought about how it would be transported out to the desert,” said Tom Ross from the winning team. “Collapsing it down was an idea we came up with together.”
Excellent
NATIONAL AVG.
2.09
