In just its fifth year of competition, the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology captured first place in the Aero Design West remote-controlled airplane competition in Fort Worth, Texas.

The School of Mines team spent months designing, building and testing the remote-controlled biplane that features a 5-foot wingspan. At the competition, the plane carried 19 pounds of added lead weight, the most of any of the nearly 40 teams, and placed third in design.

When the judges tallied the total scores, the School of Mines finished atop the regular class and ahead of some of the best-known universities in the country. The School of Mines team also is bringing home the best team award and the traveling trophy that will remain on campus for the next year.

Dolan credited the team’s success, in part, to the Center of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing and Production, also known as CAMP. Competition teams such as Aero Design fall under CAMP, a program that uses teams to offer an innovative engineering and science education and teach team-building and other skills students need and future employers want.

The Aero Design competition is intended to provide undergraduate and graduate engineering students with a real-life engineering exercise. The competition has been designed to provide exposure to the kinds of situations that engineers face in the real work environment.