Congratulations to Texas A&M’s Team Harmony who participated in Boeing’s GoFly contest’s final fly off this weekend at Moffett Field in Mountainview, California. Vying for the $1 million dollar grand prize, the team was one of five finalists in a two-year competition to design a personal flying device that is safe, useful and thrilling.

Advising Team Harmony on gear development, I have enjoyed working with aeronautical engineers Dr. Moble Benedict, David Coleman and the entire 11-person team during the past year.

The competition attracted 854 teams and 3,800 innovators from 103 countries who accepted Boeing’s bold challenge to make people fly. The GoFly prize fosters the development of safe, quiet, ultra-compact, near-vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) personal flying devices capable of flying twenty miles while carrying a single person.

With no team competing in the final fly-off achieving the competition’s stringent requirements, the $1 million grand prize remains unclaimed. With ingenuity on the cusp of innovation, Boeing is considering continuing the contest and extending the time allowed.

Continued good luck to Team Harmony!