Dreams of the Youth Soar at the İstanbul New Airport

​İGA’s third annual ‘Istanbul Inter-High School Model Aircraft Contest’ saw student’s designs take to the sky at the İstanbul New Airport. Organized this year as part of Teknofest, the winning airplane at the Model Aircraft Contest Finals won the team ‘Initial Air’ the grand prize of TL 6,000.

Held at the İstanbul New Airport in partnership with Istanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education, Istanbul Technical University and Teknofest, the third edition of İGA’s annual Model Aircraft Contest was the scene for an exciting finale.

Organized with the motto of “Soar to Your Dreams” and welcoming young people from all across Turkey, the Model Aircraft Contest’s final was a spectacle of head-to-head competition of the 36 participants in nine teams, named Cengaver, Kartal, Hürkuş 2018, Daçka, Libertatum, İstikbal Göklerdedir, Aetos Dios, Initial Air, and Hisar CS. The aircraft designed by the Private Günhan Education Institution student team “Initial Air” successfully fulfilled all tasks, earning its team the grand prize of TL 6.000.

The participants of the contest received hands-on information on model aircraft design during a three-week training course offered by the ITU Aerospace Sciences faculty members before flying their first model aircraft. The finals of the contest attracted a great deal of attention from thousands of spectators visiting the İstanbul New Airport for Teknofest.

The jurors of the contest included ITU President Prof. Dr. Mehmet Karaca, ITU Vice President Prof. Dr. İbrahim Özkol, Journalist Güntay Şimşek, ITU Aerospace Sciences Head of Department Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hayri Acar, İGA Deputy GM for Business Development Melih Mengü, İGA CTO İsmail Hakkı Polat, and İGA Environment and Sustainability Director Ülkü Özeren.

Ülkü Özeren, İGA Environment and Sustainability Director: “The final of İGA’s third annual Model Aircraft Contest was all the more spectacular this year with Teknofest. The final day of the technology festival saw the teams, who have been training arduously for this moment and preparing their planes for the past month, compete in the finals. We are delighted to have hosted such an important event and sharing the dreams of our youth prior to the opening of the airport. Witnessing the planes designed by our youth, the assurance of our future, take to the sky is a sure sign of the aviation achievements awaiting Turkey in the future. These models, testament to the hard work and efforts of our young people, herald the days when we will be see the national aircraft to be designed and build by our young people in Turkey. We need to make a name for ourselves with our achievements in aviation and the technologies developed by our youth, just as we did with our airport. The fruits of the efforts of our young and bright minds taking to the sky at the İstanbul New Airport should be a source of pride for all.”

Notes to the editor / Scoring

Scoring

• Report score: Out of 100
• Flight score: Normalized across 100 points based on the highest-scoring team
• Jury score: The average score given by the jurors.

Task

• In task flights, the duration of the flight is recorded to determine the Flight Time (FT) of each team.
• Teams can make one flight at each turn.
• Each model plane delivers cargo to the runway after completing the take-off lap.
• There are different target areas for each runway, and the teams are assigned a Target Hit Rate (THR-Target I, II, III, IV) based on their accuracy.