nasa pav challenge winners

NASA PAV Challenge Winners

Accordng to c|net news, winners were chosen Saturday in the

NASA-sponsored competition of Personal Aircraft Vehicles, the first

annual PAV Challenge. The Cafe Foundation, a nonprofit group of flight

test engineers, held the race at the Charles Schultz Sonoma County

Airport.

The winner was the modified short-wing Pipistrel Virus, a

Slovenia-built sport aircraft. A highly modified kit plane, Vans RV-4,

won the speed challenge and the low-noise challenge. A Cessna 172, the

most popular small plane in production since the 40s, won the handling

competition.

The PAV race is part of the NASA Centennial Challenges, a series of

competitions that support space exploration and aviation technologies

in private industry. The Beam Challenge and the Tether Challenge are

coming up in October. (full Challenge list and descriptions)

The blog, Space Prizes has detailed information about space-related

competitions, past teams and winners, and annual competitions like the

National Space Society's Art Prize (November 30 submission deadline).

No doubt the Society's sponsored art work will grace the rooms of

Galactic Suite, the space hotel scheduled to launch in 2012.