Students and staff of the University of Technology took part in the world's first Children's Aerospace Salon DAKS-2021

21.08.2021 The world's first Children's Aerospace Salon DAKS-2021 was held in Zhukovsky on August 20–22, 2021. On the first day, the qualifying competitions in aeromodelling and a rehearsal of the flight program were held, and then within two busy days the guests got acquainted with the main part of the show, including master classes and lectures from the students and staff of the University of Technology. DAKS ended on Sunday with a charity event for children and adults with disabilities. The parafest included the competitive program, airplane, paraglider and baloon riding.

The initiative to conduct DAKS-2021 belongs to the Soviet pilot-cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and ANO «Flying Generation» on the support and development of small aviation. Our university was invited to participate with its research developments in the field of composite materials, the project «Air Launch», master classes on rocket modeling and a presentation of the university activity.

«Air Launch» is a new joint project developed in cooperation with the Moscow Aviation Institute, the Bauman Moscow State Technical University and JSC «Compozit». This is an aerospace system based on the MIG-21 supersonic aircraft carrier for launching micro- and nanosatellites with a light-class rocket weighing up to 1000 kg. According to the project, the rocket is installed in the place of the aircraft additional ventral fuel tank and its launch is controlled by using the standard interface.

The representatives of the Student Design Bureau of the University of Technology took part in DAKS. The Student Design Bureau brings together the students of secondary vocational and higher education, schoolchildren, undergraduates, graduate students, young scientists, workers and engineers, actively involved in technical creativity and sports modeling, applied research and development work.

The rector of the University of Technology Alexei Shchikanov shared his opinion on the importance of the university's participation in the aerospace show for children: «Rocket-modeling sports and rocket and space modeling are the areas of technical creativity that carry a great potential for organizing leisure activities and allow to instil the purposefulness, technical literacy and diligence in the younger generation. Thanks to it the schoolchildren and students get acquainted with aerodynamics and ballistics of flight, methods of designing and constructing workable flying models, thermodynamics and materials science, with the issues of the strength and operation of models, with manufacturing technology and the history of the rocket technology development. Our task is to teach all this to young guys and give them a good start for future achievements. DAKS-2021 is an excellent opportunity to do this».