02/08/2017

At EAA Air Venture in Oshkosh, three High School students from Alexandria, Virginia, Thomas Baron, Justin Zhou, and Max Lord, were awarded the $25,000 Airbus sponsored top prize in EAA’s Founder’s Innovation Prize competition for their innovative concept named “Remora System” which allows to display airspeed and angle of attack data on a head-mounted display using a pod mounted under the wing to collect and transmit those critical safety information to be monitored by the pilot at any time, especially when looking at the panel is difficult or not recommended.

Second place and $10,000 went to Andy Meyer for his concept of “Aural Cuing System” which provides through a small box, that can be mounted anywhere in an aircraft, some progressive aural cues as the aircraft approaches attitude regimes where loss of control may be imminent.

Third place and $5,000 went to former astronaut Mike Foale for his “Solar Pilot Guard” that is alerting through voice the pilot in case of potential loss of control, by monitoring aircraft energy state using differential pressure measurements analyzed via an aircraft type specific neural network processor.

The judging panel consisted of Charlie Precourt, a former NASA shuttle commander and chairman of EAA’s safety committee, aerobatic champion Michael Goulian, former NTSB air safety investigator Gregory Feith, civilian test pilot Dave Morss, and Van’s Aircraft founder Dick VanGrunsven.

Founder Innovation Prize was first awarded by EAA at 2016 Oshkosh Air Venture to encourage the improvement in fatal loss of control accidents with amateur-built aircraft through innovation.

Loss of control (LOC) in flight is the leading cause of fatal accidents in general aviation, particularly in amateur-built aircraft. Fatal LOC events include base-to-final stalls, departure stalls, loss of control while maneuvering, spatial disorientation, and more.