Advanced Aero Vehicle Group Earns Trophies, Cash, And Top U.S. Team Title

The intrepid flyers from the Miner AAVG team got back to Rolla last night richer and a lot happier than in years past. Sky Miner finished third behind Brazil and Poland in the overall open class (that's the big dogs of SAE Aero) competition and will be mailed the trophy and $500 prize money soon. S&T also earned third place in the 'total payload lofted' mini competition with just over 22 lbs carried (received a trophy for that) and placed second in design behind perennial power Brazil (received a trophy for that too). This strong showing has the Miners claiming "top U.S. team honors" at SAE East, a title they named themselves, but accurate none the less.
This marks a year of great recovery for the flyers, whose '07 and '08 birds struggled at competition. The students learned quite a lot from those misadventures, and applied the lessons learned in a new design that held up very well.

PR chief Mike Crance says "overall, it was a very successful event for AAVG as we had a strong showing in all aspects of the SAE Aero competition and we proved that we are the dominant American team once again. The team is in high spirits and learned quite a few things that could be implemented in a new plane and is fired up for an opportunity next year to show that after more than 100 years since Americans flew the first airplane, we still know how to get it done".