Great engineers may be born not made, but it doesn’t do any harm to give them a helping hand along the way. That’s the purpose of the Boeing engineering student of the year awards, part of the Flight International awards.
This year’s winner, space student Kevin Lohnner, won first place for his innovative work cleaning up toxic hydrogen peroxide propellants used in combustion. In layman’s terms this means removing poisons, making a safer working environment and cleaning up the atmosphere. Lohnner is currently working on his PhD and would like to work for Boeing once he’s finished.
Says Lohner: “I’ve been fascinated by space since I was five years old. I have loved model rockets, how to build engines and how high rockets could go since childhood. I used to work in my father’s garage building things that could fly and now have a degree in engineering.” Lohner applauds the Boeing award for its initiative in attracting young engineers into the industry and indeed works hard promoting the discipline himself, often performing outreach work in schools and colleges.
So what does this bright young brain think will fly in the future? “Without a doubt space tourism will become a market as competition will bring out smaller companies working on hypersonics,” he grins.
Source: Flight Daily News
