Gainesville, FL 4-12-04
Yesterday (4/11/04) afternoon Baron Johnson called from Tucson, the site of this years MAV competition.
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Great news...........Univ. of Florida won the overall competition, again. Greater news.......Two AMA members (Baron Johnson and Kyu Ho Lee) set new World Records: The team was supported by other AMA members, Mujahid Adbulrahim, James Clifton, Donald MacArthur and Carlo Francis - all students in the Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department.
Baron now holds the world record for flying the smallest Micro Air Vehicle (of 5-1/4 inch maximum dimension) the required 600 meter distance to acquire the target and make positive Identification using on board video to both fly and use as the surveillance camera. The aircraft weighed 40 grams (about
1.6 ozs.). Kyu Ho Lee now holds the world record for maximum endurance for the smallest Micro Air Vehicle of 4-3/4 inch maximum dimension for 14 minutes and 54 seconds. This is just 6 seconds short of the official maximum cutoff is 15 minutes which no one has accomplished with such a small vehicle. Baron's own design Ornithopter won second place against stiff competition from CalPoly and the likes of world famous designer Paul McCreedy from the West coast.We are thrilled and very proud of the MAV Lab, the University of Florida, and especially our local participants that represented us with such outstanding performances.
-- Red Scholefield AMA 951 Flying Gators Inc., GNV FL