Indian students win NASA Contest

WASHINGTON: An undergraduate team from the Sardar Vallabhai Patel
Institute in Gujarat has been declared runner-up in the non-US
category of a NASA competition to design a supersonic airliner.
Named "Rastofust", the design of the supersonic airliner was designed
by Sahaj Panchal and Dhrumir Patel, NASA said yesterday while
announcing the result of its contest.
The top slot in the non-US category was grabbed by students from the
University of Tokyo, Japan.
College students from the US, Japan and India researched technology
and created concepts for a supersonic passenger jet as part of a
competition sponsored by the Fundamental Aeronautics Program in NASA's
Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, NASA said.
The participants were challenged to design a small supersonic airliner
and submit a research paper limited to 25 pages. Designs had to be
efficient, environmentally friendly, low sonic boom commercial
aircraft that could be ready for initial service by 2020.
A team of undergraduates from the University of Virginia in
Charlottesville, and a team of graduate students from the Georgia
Institute of Technology in Atlanta tied for first place in the US
division, it said.
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