Russian Helicopters (a subsidiary of Oboronprom, part of State Corporation Rostec) has awarded the winners of this year’s 21^st century helicopter design contest. The ceremony took place at International Exhibition Centre Crocus Expo on Saturday 24 May 2014 as part of the VII International helicopter exhibition HeliRussia-2014. Ten young specialists were awarded prizes in in three categories, and one case study.

The project “Improving aviation unit installation performance using virtual computer modelling” by Samira Chotchaeva, an engineer at the Rostvertol training centre, won in the category “Developing new aviation technologies and materials.” Second place went to Viktoria Chesnova (Tsiolkovsky Russian State Technological University), and third place to Natalya Ryabkova and Tatyana Grishchenko (Progress Arsenyev Aviation Company).

Employees at the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant took first place in the “Mathematical Modelling” category, as design engineer at section 91 Sergei Novoselov and team leader at section 930 Denis Pridannikov were recognised for their project “Mathematical modelling of forced and resonance vibration in bevel geared helicopter transmission by applying a finite element analytical approach.” Specialists from Kazan Helicopters Ilfar Gubaidullin and Konstantin Pantyukhin took second and third place, respectively.

Helicopter flight test engineer, second class, at Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant Konstantin Samsonov won first prize in the category “Improving the operating efficiency of helicopter development,” for his project entitled “Carrying out flight tests to evaluate the economic efficiency of modernising Mi-8/17 helicopters.”

In the “Developing and supporting approaches to ensuring crew members’ upper necks are not injured when helicopters carry out emergency landings” case study, second place went to design engineer (third category) at section 15 at the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant, Vasily Yakushev.

Students from more than 15 specialist higher educational institutions took part in the 2013-2014 21^st century helicopters competition. With entrants from the Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University), the Tupolev Kazan National Research Technical University, Komsomolsk on Amur State Technical University, Southern Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Korolev Samara State Aerospace University, and major Russian aviation sector enterprises, over 60 people took part in the contest.

“It is gratifying to see that creative challenges in the area of design development have, for many years, drawn considerable interest from students in specialist higher educational establishments and young specialists in aviation enterprises,” HR and Development Director at Russian Helicopters Evgeny Kuzmenkov said. “The achievements attained and creative approach that these young people have applied to these challenges give us every confidence that the sector’s human resource potential is sound, and that it today attracts the finest specialists to pursue careers in the helicopter industry.”

The sixth Russian Helicopters 21^st century helicopter design development competition was aimed at fuelling youth interest in pursuing a career in Russia’s helicopter industry, and at building up the sector’s scientific and technical resource base. Entries submitted were evaluated by the competition commission under two criteria: practical tasks currently facing design bureaus and Russian Helicopters plants engaged in series production; and individual category projects. During the first two stages of the competition, finalists had the opportunity to further develop their projects. During the second stage, university tutors and experienced aviation sector specialists met finalists to discuss their projects. Eleven teams went through to the final round of the competition.

All the finalists received prize money. Participants whose entries were deemed promising will have the opportunity to do work experience at the Russian Helicopters research centre and in the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant. Competition entries that were singled out for particular praise will be published in the prestigious Moscow Aviation Industry Journal, helping students achieve the volume of academic publications required for their degree courses.