Our alumnus Josemaría Form 4 Class of 2019 last April 15, 2023, he had the privilege to represent his school, the University of Manchester in UK in an annual competition of aerospace engineering students in Dayton Ohio, USA, called “IT FLIES 2023!” Incidentally, Josemaría told us that it was in Dayton that the first aircraft was invented and flown by the Wright brothers in 1903.

The good news is that his team, composed of himself and his classmate, bagged the Most Innovative Aircraft Design. They also won 3rd prize in Best Project Presentation! Their aircraft was “flown” and assessed in a flight simulator by pilots from the U.S. Air Force. It was not enough to design a plane but it has to be able to “fly” in the engineering flight simulator. The judges were experienced test pilots from the US Air Force. Josemaría’s team spent 3 long months doing intensive calculations on this project. Finally, they came up with a 6th generation fighter jet with supersonic cruising speed of Mach>2 and optimized for very low combat maneuvers to avoid radar detection. They were also thankful to Manchester University for funding the trip; it was their first time in the US and they were so thrilled.

On May 5, the newsletter of Manchester University’s School of Engineering, their home for Engineering is the largest in the UK, featured Josemaría and team mate on the front page for “outstanding performance on the IT Flies competition” of their students.

Josemaría remains ever grateful for the foundation got from Strathmore School! We wish his the very best in his Engineering efforts!