For mechanical engineering senior David Gaunt, the chance to participate in Flugtag, a national flying competition, came unexpectedly.
“My friend called me one evening and said, ‘Hey, would you ever want to be in Flugtag?,’ and I thought it sounded like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said. “(I had) one hour to come pick up an application, draw a plan and assemble a team.”
Gaunt then formed a group to compete in Flugtag, a competition funded by Red Bull, that allows teams to create a flying machine using only handmade, human-powered machinery. Team Drachenflieger consisted of four MSU students and one Oakland University student who traveled to Chicago to compete during the weekend of Sept. 7.
Unfortunately, due to marine conditions, the Chicago leg of the competition had to be canceled.
“Our design was one of 10 (entered), which was then narrowed down to four after voting, and then there was a text-in round when you had your friends and fans text in your team name, which narrowed it down to two, and then a video round that narrowed it down to one at MSU,” Gaunt said.
Team Drachenflieger consisted of Gaunt, English senior Britt Holewinski, MSU alumnus Alex Strauch, psychology senior Thomas Seibert and Oakland University student Jake Michels. The group received funds and support from their surrounding community.
“We bought a bunch of aluminum tubes for making the skeleton of it, we bought wood for making the airfoils and the push parts and then we had to get shrink wraps for putting over the wings to make an actual wing surface,” he said.
Following the cancellation, each team was offered a form of consolation.
“Each team was offered $1,000 or they were able to take their craft home with them for automatic entry into the next Red Bull Flugtag Chicago competition,” Jennifer Belongia-Barak of the Red Bull North America Midwest Business Unit said.
After months of building and traveling, Team Drachenflieger was unable to compete.
“I just felt like I might be letting down everyone who helped us in the process because it was a community thing,” Gaunt said. “We had our community donate to us and help us by volunteering to build, and when it was all said and done, we didn’t really get to participate and prove what we had built.”
Fellow team member Seibert said he agreed.
“The whole team was excited to do it because we had made it that far and we were the only team from MSU, and we all raised a lot of money and put a lot of hard work into it,” Seibert said. “It was a little defeating to come that far and have them say you can’t do it this year.”
However, the team said they feel they put their best foot forward and look forward to competing next year.
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