Team Abhimanyu from MVJ College of Engineering won the first prize (₹20,000/-) for designing an amphibious aircraft that can take off and land in both from a runway as well as from sea.

The Aeronautical Society of India has set-up a Design Division, intended to be the torch bearer for aerospace design professionals decided to conduct a National Aerospace Conceptual Design Competition (NACDeC) for students. The competition was open to teams of undergraduate students of Aeronautical or Aerospace Engineering department from IITs, IIST, or any other institutions in India. Each institute could nominate only one team consisting of max. 05 (five) members, and one Faculty mentor.

The Competition was launched on 31 Aug 2017, Post Submission of Conceptual proposal, 9 teams were shortlisted for the next stage. The nine team had to design their aircraft and submit a detailed report with all necessary drawings, calculations. Of the 9 teams, 5 teams were shortlisted for the finals wherein the team were asked to give a presentation on their design which was followed by question and answer session from the expert panel of judges comprising Dr T G Pai, Dr K Sudhakar and Dr RK Pant. The award was given to the winning team by Padma Sri Dr Kota Harinarayana, Head Design Division of Aeronautical Society of India.

The aircraft designed by the students met all the Specific Requirements of the Passenger (PAX) Mission as well as the Air Sea Rescue (ASR) Mission.

Times of India – 19 September 2018 (Page 4)