Ondokuz Mayıs University (OMU) Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics students returned from the TUBITAK (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) unmanned aerial vehicles competition with a reward.

Kelebek Etkisi Takımı (Team Butterfly Effect), supervised by academic member of OMU Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics Asst. Prof. Gökhan Ahmet, was awarded with the Best Original Design Award with their fixed-wing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicle named MERKÜT-1 at the “International Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Competition” held this year for the second time by TUBITAK.

A total of 226 teams coming from Turkey, Bangladesh, Cyprus, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Poland, Qatar, and Romania have attended the competition held at the Kahramankazan Compound of Turkish Aerospace Industries, Inc. (TUSAŞ/TAI).

The competition is held to prove that Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) intended for civil use to help people in emergency situations such as fires or accidents can be developed. In addition, UAV’s orderly load dropping abilities and autonomous flight and image processing capabilities were also tested.

Team Butterfly Effect, mostly consisting of first-year students studying at OMU Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics which started to accept students just three years ago, attracted great attention from the participants and the authorities. The received award has proved that OMU students are also competitive and assertive in the field of aviation.