WMU team assembles sail for Kitty Hawk competition
March 17, 2003
KALAMAZOO -- Eight student members in a Western Michigan University paper engineering class will begin assembling a paper sail today for a hang glider that will be used in an April 5 competition in Nags Head, N. C., against collegiate teams from around the nation.
Culmination of the Energy Challenge 2003, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, will be a series of flights from atop an 80-foot bluff using a hand glider with a paper sail. The flights are part of a celebration of the centennial celebration marking the Wright brothers' first flight in 1903.
WMU's team produced the paper for its glider March 13, using campus paper making equipment. Team members will begin seaming assembling and laminating the sail from 1 to 4 p.m. Monday, March 17, inside WMU's New Paper Coating Pilot Plant on the Parkview Campus. Work on the sail is expected to be completed this week and shipped to Nags Head the week of March 24.
Media contact: Cheryl Roland, 269 387-8400, cheryl.roland@wmich.edu