Airbus donates elevator to BCoE

December 18, 2014

From L-R: Aerospace graduate student Ashkan Khalili, Raspet director Ratan Jha and research associate Dulip Widana-Gamage preparing to unpack the elevator in the Raspet hangar.

From L-R: Aerospace graduate student Ashkan Khalili, Raspet director Ratan Jha and research associate Dulip Widana-Gamage preparing to unpack the elevator in the Raspet hangar.

STARKVILLE, Miss. – A unique donation to Mississippi State University will help further research into air travel safety and cost efficiency.

Last month, Airbus Americas delivered a non-flight worthy A330 elevator worth more than $750,000 to the Bagley College of Engineering’s Raspet Flight Research Laboratory. Constructed of lightweight composite materials, the elevator helps control flight elevation and stabilization from the rear of the aircraft.

“Airbus is proud to donate this A330 elevator to the Mississippi State Bagley College of Engineering Raspet Flight Research Laboratory,” said Barry Eccleston, president of Airbus Americas. “With this donation, we hope to help give the students hands-on experience with the new materials used in aerospace. It’s an investment in the aerospace industry’s future.”

Ratan Jha, director of the Raspet Flight Research Laboratory, and Tom Lacy, interim department head in aerospace engineering help facilitate the delivery of the elevator and are excited about how it will help advance engineering research at Mississippi State.

“Dr. Lacy and I are really thankful to Airbus for donating the elevator to MSU and the department of aerospace engineering,” Jha said. “We are glad to have it at Raspet for the university’s students and faculty to use.”

The elevator will allow engineers to study the effects of fatigue and fracture on composite structures like the elevator. The goal is to help companies like Airbus replace scheduled maintenance with condition-based maintenance, saving them time and money.

“Airbus’s generous donation of this equipment speaks to the critical role that MSU plays in training the next generation of aerospace engineers,” U.S. Senator Roger Wicker said. “Mississippi is quickly becoming a go-to place for high-tech manufacturing jobs in the United States, and Airbus is at the forefront of that growth in the Golden Triangle.”

Thanks to support from local, national and international companies like Airbus, Mississippi State’s students and faculty are able to take their work beyond the classroom and apply their research in real world situations.

U.S. Senator Thad Cochran said, “Strong relationships between Mississippi’s universities and industries can produce beneficial collaborations for students to advance their education and training. This generous contribution to Mississippi State University is an example of such an effort.”

With a team of more than 60,000 people, Airbus manufactures a modern and eco-efficient family of airliners, ranging from 100 to more than 500 seats. In addition to assembly facilities in Toulouse, France; Hamburg, Germany and Tianjin, China; construction is underway of Airbus’ first U.S. assembly line in Mobile, Alabama. Airbus has spent more than $154 billion in the U.S. since 1990 – $14.4 billion in 2013 alone – with hundreds of American suppliers in more than 40 states.

For more information about Airbus, visit www.airbus.com.

The Bagley College of Engineering is online at www.bagley.msstate.edu.

By: Erin Boozer