On Friday, April 29, the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering held its annual Aerospace Engineering Senior Design Day. Students in the space senior design class presented their Tumbleweed Earth Demonstrator 2 (TED2) to AE faculty and guest representatives from NASA Langley and Geophex. The TED2 is an Earth prototype of a Mars Tumbleweed, which is designed to collect data as it is propelled across the surface of Mars by wind. TED2 is based on an earlier Tumbleweed demonstrator, TED1, built two years ago by aerospace seniors at NC State.

The AE picnic was held at Pullen Park on Friday afternoon. MAE faculty, staff, students, family, friends, and guests attended.. The Tumbleweed senior design team assembled and demonstrated TED2. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) NCSU Student Chapter hosted the picnic with a catered BBQ.

The 2005 aerospace senior design class also includes two aircraft design teams, who designed and built two ultra maneuverable, vectored thrust aircraft named Sphyrna and Archangel . These designs were presented at the AIAA student conference in Gainesville Fl in April where the design competition was won yet again by NC State.