2007 LONDON CITY AIRPORT YOUNG AVIATION DESIGNERS’ COMPETITION - RESULTS

Today, Wednesday 14 February 2007, London City Airport launched the 2007 Young Aviation Designers’ Competition. The competition was launched in partnership with St. John’s Community Centre in North Woolwich as part of their schools half term entertainment programme. The winners of the first ‘London City Airport Young Aviation Designs’ Competition’ were Ileri Oyefesobi aged 7 from Slivertown, Sofia Iqbal aged 10 from Beckton, Oyinlola Adesida aged 6 from Barking and Eni Ayodele also aged 6 and from Barking.

The competition proved very popular with over 20 children who were competing in the competition. The children were presented with an aerodynamic design brief, which outlined the fundamental design of aeroplanes and how they work. The brief concluded challenging the children to design either an aircraft suitable for operating into London City Airport, or the interior of an aircraft, focussing on how to improve the comfort and experience of flying.

Elizabeth Hegarty, Community Relations Manager for London City Airport, was encouraged by the childrens positive response and their interpretation of the design brief: “The results of the competition were very impressive. The creativity and complexity of the children’s designs demonstrated that we were working with designers and engineers of the future.

“The structure of the day was based around play; we know that children don’t need an excuse to play, they play because it’s fun. Whilst having fun the children were very open to learning, especially about a new subject that was exciting and allowed them to use their imagination.”

Elahe Panahi, St. Johns Community Centre Manager was delighted by the commitment of the children: “London City Airport is a long term supporter of St. Johns. It’s days like today which make a difference. The London City Airport Young Aviation Designs’ Competition is something very different to what we normally plan, it certainly created a lot of interest from the children. I would like to take this opportunity to thank London City Airport and the staff for their time and ongoing dedication to the centre.

One of the winners of the Aviation Designers’ Competition, Sofia Iqbal, aged 10 said: “Today was really fun. My design for a new plane cares about the environment, which is very important. My plane is a bright colour so other pilots can see it easily.”