State Challenge

Each year, the State level Real World Design Challenge will present students with an opportunity to create solutions to a problem faced by one of our Nation’s leading industries. The 2009 Governors Cup State Challenge, to be released in October 2008, will address fuel efficiency in aviation. Utilizing engineering design software, collaborative web-based tools, and the expertise of mentor scientists and engineers from the Department of Energy, the aviation industry, colleges and universities, student teams will spend several months creating solutions to the Challenge. These solutions will be submitted for judging in February 2009. One team will be selected to represent each state at the National Challenge Event held in Washington, DC during April 2009.

The Design Challenge

Design an economical twin-engine jet airplane that meets assigned cruise speed and stall speed requirements. The importance of these two performance characteristics is reflected in the scoring procedure for the Challenge. The fuel burn rate result will contribute up to a maximum of 70 of the 100 points available toward the final team score. Failure to meet the stall speed requirement of the Challenge will result in a deduction of 20 points from the final team score.