August 26 - Volga-Dnepr Group's international competition to design an 'advanced transport aircraft of the 21st century' has been won by three students attending the Moscow Aviation Institute.
The winning team, which comprised of Sergey Borovykh, Nikolay Turbin and Ilya Ageev, presented a 200-page project for the design of a 'Heavy Transport Aircraft Concept with New Aerodynamic Configuration'.
Their proposal consisted of a full description and design solutions for a triplane aircraft of the AN-225 'Mriya' type. The twin-boom designed aircraft with external loading capability is designed to carry super heavy and outsize cargo suspended under a centre wing section between two fuselages.
The winners have now been invited to join the Volga-Dnepr design bureau team.
The second prize went to a team from Stuttgart in Germany that consisted of pilot Herd-Dieter Manfred Schmidt, flight instructor Manuel Schmidt and assistant professor Gunter Faust.
"We launched this contest for everyone who cares about the future of transport aviation, who aspires to contribute to its development, and who has the energy and knowledge to do this," said Artem Aroutyunov, deputy technical director and head of the design bureau at Volga-Dnepr Group.
"Through this exercise…we have received interesting, complex and detailed projects for transport aircraft and engine units from Russia, Bulgaria, Germany, Serbia and Ukraine. The best of them are real design solutions to be applied in the aviation industry," he added.
Alexey Komarov, a graduate of Stroganov Moscow State University of Arts and Industry, was awarded a special prize for his 'future airlifter' concept. The aircraft model he designed was exhibited on Volga-Dnepr Group's exhibition stand during IATF-2014.
The contest committee was headed by Victor Tolmachev, technical director of Volga-Dnepr Group and chief designer of the unique AN-124 transport aircraft, who celebrated his 80th birthday this month.
The winning design.
