Honeywell has announced the Air Force Bal Bharati School as the winner of its third annual Aero Club model flying competition in New Delhi. The Aero Club competition is a Honeywell Hometown Solutions initiative that increases engagement in, and understanding of aviation to inspire the next generation India’s aerospace industry professionals.

The event, which took place today at the Air Force Bal Bharati School in Delhi, was attended by Pritam Bhavnani, President of Honeywell Aerospace India, and Honeywell Inc’s new Country President Anant Maheshwari. It included over 150 students from four schools in the New Delhi area.

“Putting the practicalities of flight into the hands of India’s aspiring aviation professionals is one of the best ways to foster new growth and engineering talent in the industry,” said Pritam Bhavnani, President, Honeywell Aerospace India. “By encouraging these students to get ‘hands-on’ with aviation, we are ensuring that India’s talent pool of young, enthusiastic pilots and engineers continues to flourish in years to come.

Launched in July 2011, Aero Club is part of the Honeywell Hometown Solutions’ science and maths education initiative, a series of programmes created to inspire the next generation of innovators by improving science, technology, engineering and maths education around the world. This year’s competition is the largest to date, with students benefitting from the chance to build and fly model aircraft using aero modelling kits supplied by Honeywell in a bid to achieve the longest indoor flight.

Students participating in the Aero Club initiative are given practical advice from Honeywell Field Service Engineers to help them learn the concepts of aerodynamics and principles of flight. During the one-day competition, students get to test their theoretical and practical knowledge of airworthiness, speed and handling capabilities based on their aircraft designs. Participating schools in this year’s competition were the Air Force School, Air Force Golden Jubilee Institute, Air Force Bal Bharati School and Sawan Public School, Bhatti Mines, with students ranging from IX to XI Standard.

Aerospace Learning is Passion

In addition to Aero Club, Honeywell Hometown Solutions is also ensuring passion for aviation is driven from the top down in the classroom. To date, the company has sponsored 1,973 teachers from 35 countries to attend the Honeywell Educators @ Space Academy programme at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where teachers participate in 45 hours of training focused on science and space exploration. In a series of astronaut-style exercises and simulations, teachers learn new and innovative ways to teach science, technology, engineering and maths.