When Spencer Reid, a junior at Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, enrolled at the school earlier this year, he came from St. Martin High School in Ocean Springs with a dream.
After hearing that MSMS didn’t have a drone team, Spencer wanted to start the school’s first because he enjoyed competing for his previous high school’s program so much.
“With drones, that’s something that I feel like I’m really good at, and I wanted to continue doing in the future,” Reid said. “… And so coming here I definitely want to bring that over, so I can continue to get better and have a career in drones.”
Melanie Busby, director of student engagement at MSMS, said she was happy to sign on as the drone team’s sponsor in the fall.
After presenting to Executive Director Ginger Tedder and Thomas Easterling, director for academic affairs, the team was cleared for take off, Busby said. The only thing missing was funding until Airbus Helicopters stepped in with a $5,000 grant to get the program off the ground.
“(With the grant) we were able to buy all the drones, the extra batteries, the extra propellers, the extra parts and then both of the (obstacle courses),” Busby said. “And then we actually got a small grant from the (Robotics Education and Competition Foundation), that sent us more drones (to start the team).”
Students with MSMS’s drone team met with Airbus personnel Wednesday to tour the company’s facilities to learn more about aircraft construction and career opportunities. The drone team, which consists of 12 students across three groups, has already participated in four competitions since August and won two of them, qualifying the team for the Southeast Aerial Drone Competition Regional Championship in Huntsville April 17-18.
The team practices twice a week in the school’s art room to train each member on piloting and programming in preparation for local competitions, Reid said.
Drone teams compete at local competitions in events that measure individual and team piloting skills, like piloting multiple laps through an obstacle course made of foam and PVC or programming a specific flight pattern to achieve a goal like the most laps through a loop, Reid said.
The drones used for competitions by the team typically come pre-built, but Reid said he would like to see the team expand to other competitions that allow for the team to construct its own.
After seeing the entire construction and design process for the aircraft at Airbus, Reid said it just gave him even more inspiration for the team to pursue that challenge, even if their designs would be smaller than the aircraft at the facility.
“It’s incredible to just see how they’re made,” Reid said. “… These things are massive, and they say it takes about six months to get them fully made, but that seems like a short time to me considering how complex they are.”
Wyatt Keifer, a junior at MSMS from Biloxi, said he loved watching how mechanics and engineers go through the process of making adjustments to the helicopters at the site.
“Seeing how these things are put together and how much thought and work and consideration goes into each one of the aircraft for each customer, it’s definitely really interesting,” Keifer said. “And it’s been an eye-opening experience for me.”
Thomas Cooper, flight test engineer at Airbus and 2002 MSMS alumni, said he was glad to show current students from his former alma mater the manufacturing that goes on at the Airbus facility along with career opportunities they may have never known about.
“It’s awesome to see a team that we got to sponsor for the drone competition (doing so well),” Cooper said. “And most of them are interested in aerospace and engineering … so to be able to show them around and show them my career … and (that) there’s opportunities here in Columbus, Mississippi and at Airbus it’s rewarding.”
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