CHAMPION BLACKBIRDS FLY SOUTH FOR THE RWDC NATIONALS

By Charlotte Vincent

When we left you last, a few volunteers from Plum Island Aerodrome (PIA) were transforming the airport hangar from a ceremonial setting back to its natural state as a Working Museum.

A ceremony had been held to honor the MA state championship win by Team Blackbird of Newburyport High School (NHS). Though the day was gorgeous, the students didn’t linger long at 2B2. They were down to the wire working feverishly to submit the MA entry for the final round of the Real World Design Challenge (RWDC). Designs were due by the next stroke of midnight!


No sooner did the clock strike 12, that the NHS students and faculty coach were off and running again. Now their efforts turned to preparing for their design presentation and Question and Answer (Q&A) session at the national level competition. By March 26, the Blackbirds were ready to fly south to represent Massachusetts at the RWDC Nationals in Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) Aeronautics Division, Steve Rawding was also off and running to catch a plane to our nation’s capital. For the weekend of March 26, Steve was both the MassDOT representative and the proud host of our state championship team at the RWDC Nationals.


The Results Are In

Steve was also the news link for the folks back-home. It was Steve who let us know how Team Blackbird had done at the RWDC Nationals: “Newburyport’s Team Blackbird … had a great trip and a great presentation; however they didn’t make it to the winners circle. Surprisingly, the students were not down at all and you could hear them forming a plan for next year’s challenge.”

We chatted with our local champs at Plum Island Airport after they received the state awards. We also caught up with them and their faculty coach at NHS upon their return from D.C. It didn’t take long to see that Steve’s news flash about the Blackbirds was indeed the story here.

Though they may not have made it to the RWDC winners’ circle in D.C., this is very much a winning team and a team of winners. This is the story of a team of students who are definitely already winning big in the circle of life!

What’s in a Name

The debate still rages as to who coined the team’s name – as well as how and why.

Some say the team was named after the supersonic reconnaissance aircraft, SR-71 Blackbird. Others say it was named after the Beatle’s song, “Blackbird”, giving the team both a name and a theme song.

From what we’ve learned about this team, we’d say Team Blackbird has a mix of both namesakes running through its blood. But we’ll let you be the judge!

Who’s on the Team

NHS’ Technology Department, headed by Steven Smith, continues to build a solid foundation in engineering design and software technology through classroom training and hands-on laboratory work. NHS encourages all of its students to take advantage of the state of the art learning offered through its Technology curriculum.

The Blackbirds are no strangers to the Technology Department. Meet the Blackbirds once again from left to right: Molly Picillo, Ryan Campbell, Belle Douglass, Dan Colby, and Connor Gravelle. With 4 sophomores and 1 junior, Team Blackbird is a solid peer level team. This is the second consecutive year that Belle and Molly have stepped up to the RWDC for NHS.


Also stepping up to the plate for the second year in a row, is Team Blackbird’s faculty coach, NHS Technology Instructor, Sarah Leadbeater.


The Blackbird gals gave the team a boost in confidence with their continuity of knowledge and experience with the RWDC process and design requirements. The Blackbird guys injected the team with fresh blood and new ideas.

Each of the Blackbirds brought to the team, his/her unique set of knowledge and experience, talents and skills, personal motivations and personality traits.

All came to the team with a model work ethic, a sense of personal responsibility and commitment, and an abundance of energy and passion for one or more of the STEM fields, i.e., Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

How They Became a Working Team

Five individual students came together last November to work on a team that would represent NHS in the RWDC state level competition. However, it was most definitely a five student team who returned from the RWDC nationals at the end of March.

Somewhere along the way, they went from working on a team to being a working team. Somewhere along the way, they had become the Blackbirds.

The turning point seems to have been in February when they began work on the RWDC nationals.

Ryan Campbell first takes us back to November. “During the state challenge we each did our own thing and reported back to everyone.” The volume of work and the compressed timeline of the nationals triggered some critical shifts in team dynamics. Common objectives came to drive the beat of individual drumming. An unwavering focus on the end result consistently steered the team toward healthy compromise. Ryan goes onto explain: “We’re all stubborn and knew what we wanted. But we didn’t clash. We were willing to test things out. In the end, what we wanted was similar.” Ask anyone to name the team leader, and each is likely to point to any one of the five students. Ryan clarifies further: “We were all team leader at some point. We also each took our individual roles seriously. We all stepped up as needed.”

Belle Douglass drives the point home. “In the national challenge, the lines blurred and we came together as a team.” Belle provides further evidence of the strong team spirit that had gradually taken hold. “At the Nationals, we each wore the SR-71 Blackbird pin which Steve Rawding had given us at the state award ceremony at Plum Island Airport.”

Some might argue that the wearing of the SR-71 pins at the Nationals makes the case that
Team Blackbird was named for the supersonic aircraft. However, when you hear more about the Blackbirds, an equally powerful case can be made that Team Blackbird is named for the Beatles’ song.


The 2010 National Challenge

Team Blackbird’s state win advanced them to the national level competition. Just to remind everyone, the state challenge was to design and build a tail fin for a Learjet which optimized fuel efficiency without degrading performance.

Sarah Leadbeater, NHS faculty coach for Team Blackbird, gave us some perspective on the sheer magnitude of the national challenge which the Blackbirds took on: “The 2010 RWDC nationals called for a design which optimized the tail fin and the wing together. In other words, last year’s challenge for a wing design plus add a tail fin which working together optimize fuel efficiency!”

Molly Picillo adds her own exclamation point to the challenge at hand. “And do all of this in a month!” Back at Plum Island Airport on the day their final design for the nationals was due, Molly had shared with us how the national challenge was going: “Our back up plan had been to use NHS’ winning wing design from last year’s RWDC. But last year’s was a different type of plane. That wing design didn’t work with the tail we’d designed for this year’s state challenge. So we had to redesign a new wing and a new tail that working together optimized results!” There is marked growth in Molly’s self-confidence since we spoke to her last year. The calm confidence in her voice is striking as she sums up where the Blackbirds are at as the clock’s approaching midnight. “We’re feeling pretty confident with the number we’re getting and that we can back it up. In the RWDC competition, the process you follow is as important as the final design and the actual number result”

The Blackbird’s Approach

We caught some glimpses into the Blackbird’s approach and the biggest challenges the Blackbirds came up against in both the state and national levels. As we listened to the Blackbirds, it was clear that the Blackbirds had also picked up a few life lessons along the way.


Connor Gravelle pointed out how the team drew on outside expertise when we chatted with him at Plum Island Airport after the state award ceremony. “It was a little overwhelming at the beginning. We consulted with Thayer Adsit (NHS 2009 graduate and RWDC Team Captain) and also with Ryan’s sister who’s in aerospace engineering. They gave us ideas on where to start and how to get going.”

In our follow-up with the team after the D.C. Nationals, we gained insight into some of the other challenges the team faced. We also saw the practical, real world value of the Real World Design Challenge in action.

Dan Colby brings up the challenges of “on the job” training for some of the software technology. “We already knew the PTC Pro-Engineer software. But we had to learn the FLOEFD software which simulates wind over the wing. We used the PTC videos to learn how to run the software. We also got some consulting help from Thayer. It turned out we weren’t using the software right for a while.” Equipped with new knowledge and experience, the team did some course corrections and was off and running once again.

The Cessna software proved to be an even bigger challenge for the team. Ryan jumps in: “We also had difficulty with the Cessna analytical software. There’s no way to know if you’re doing it right. We never really caught onto this one. It’s all real world software. You need to understand the terminology. You also need to know what you’re getting from the data and how to put it into the equation.”

Belle is quick to share her positive take on the whole thing. “But that’s part of the appeal. We’re all desperate to move onto college and then onto real world work. We just got a taste of what the real world will be like.”

Sensing a teachable moment, Sarah interjects with a life coach message: “You won’t be spoon-fed in the real world.”

Belle gets us back to Blackbird’s approach: “After listening to the other design presentations at the nationals, we seemed to have approached the design in the opposite way of everyone.”

Ryan: “We spent a significant time on the wing.” There were a few things driving this decision: “First we know that most of the lift comes from the wing and not the tail fin. Then we had last year’s winning wing design – so we were familiar with wing designs. Lastly it was easier to test. You can test a wing alone. But you can’t test a tail fin alone.”


The Blackbird’s Design

Whether due to the software challenges, the priority focus on the wing, or a combination of these and other factors, both the team and the coach acknowledge that their final technical design was flawed.


Sarah explains from a technology coach perspective: “They had a torque problem that made it more of a rocket ship than a plane. They found the problem in the last 30 minutes. If they had had 3 more hours they would have had a plane.”!

But that was not to be as the clock had just struck 12!

The Blackbirds Prepare to Present

The Blackbirds now turned their attention to proposing and marketing their design at the Nationals in D.C. The presentation and Q&A session would be to a panel of judges from relevant government agencies, educational institutions, and private industry. It would cover the technical design, fuel efficiency results, and the processes used for engineering design and testing, as well as project management and communications.

The Blackbirds clearly see the value of the presentation techniques and guidelines insisted upon by their coach.

From Belle we hear about the presentation material: “Miss Leadbeater doesn’t let us write a lot of text on our presentation slides. Nor does she let us use distracting graphics. This helps us make sure we really know the material.”

Ryan gives us more on the presentation delivery: “We rehearsed together. We each had specific slides to present. But we all knew all the slides.”

Molly highlights another advantage of their coach guided approach: “At the Nationals, we each could add comments to each person’s slide if we had to or wanted to.”

The Blackbirds Step Up For Massachusetts

Twenty states participated in this year’s RWDC Nationals in D.C. This is twice as many as last year, the inaugural year for the RWDC.


Sarah’s voice reverberates with a coach’s pride as she tells us just how great a job her team did for Massachusetts: “There were some technical issues with the plane design itself. But their presentation was very good. The team knew their material. The presentation and question sessions are where the NHS team shines! The team knows their “stuff”. They can go off script and they can answer the tough questions.”

Both Sarah and the team were disappointed with the tough questions. Not how the Blackbirds handled them but that there weren’t any this year! Sarah shares the feedback she’s passed onto RWDC after this year’s nationals: “Last year’s questions were probing, direct, and focused. This year’s were what I call “Fluffy” questions. We knew where our weak points were and we expected to get questions in these areas. Last year’s panels would have picked up on it. This year, they only had a few technical questions. I’m not sure why.”

What Makes Them Proud

Disappointment fades away as conversation turns once again to the Blackbirds and what everyone’s most proud of with this year’s RWDC competition.

Dan’s most proud of the stability of their design: “that our tail cone design stayed the same from the state to the national challenge.”

Belle’s pride ties in her two years with RWDC: “We shared more equally this year. We really got involved in all aspects of the challenge this year.”

Molly’s pride touches both years too: “I’m most proud that we finished and that we really understood all aspects of the challenge this year. We are more confident in our knowledge.”

And what about you, coach … Sarah’s face beams with pride as she shares with us what’s made her most proud: “How far the team came this year. Last year, we had seniors on the high end. The team could rely on these individuals to move the team ahead until the team could catch up. This year’s team started at a lower level. They had to do more work. They had to learn more. They had more ground to cover. I’m most proud of just how far they came!

Who Were Key Supporters

Ask the team who their key supporters were – and all hands point to Sarah.

Molly shares her observation from the Nationals: “Some coaches in the nationals seemed like they were on the team itself… and that they were hands on in the design.”

Belle piggy backs on this and profiles their NHS coach in contrast: “We work well with Miss Leadbeater’s coaching style. She likes to say to everyone: “I got them started and then I got out of their way.’ That’s true and that’s good because then it’s on us. And that motivates us!”

What’s the Big Take Away

We were curious to see if RWDC was an event in time or an experience that had some lingering impact on the students.



By now we had gotten to know them somewhat. We fully expected that these Blackbirds who are so hungry for life would have eaten up all they could from the experience. We did not expect just how poignant the RWDC experience had been for this year’s sophomores and junior.

For Dan, the impact is direction-setting: “Before RWDC, I was torn between civil or mechanical engineering; Now, I’m torn between aerospace and mechanical engineering.”

For Belle, RWDC is passion validation: “RWDC increased my excitement to go to college and to take all the classes that will include stuff like this. It’s also important to emphasize just how much fun we had.”

For Molly, RWDC is skills development: “Kansas, this year’s national winner, had a whole design schedule with deadlines. Next year we need a schedule.”

Sarah sums up a few of the key learnings from RWDC: “We learned time management and the need for more of it! The kids learned technical skills and problem solving skills which are applicable to all fields”. Quietly Belle adds “and applicable to life”!

What About Next Year – “Game On”!

This year’s RWDC has clearly ignited the competitive spark in the Blackbirds. These highly charged students are already plotting how to win the RWDC Nationals next year and how to solidify the winning team.

Belle makes it clear that competing in next year’s RWDC is a given: “We will definitely do it next year. In a way it’s better that we didn’t place this year at the Nationals. We weren’t stressing over our project. Instead we got to see the other teams' projects. It helped us to learn from the others. We already have a list of what to do and how it should be done. We have the determination to go and reclaim our one year winning streak at the Nationals!”

Ryan leaves us with no doubt that this team is staying on and is ready to roll: “We now have 5 students and 1 coach who know the RWDC Process. We’re already starting to recruit a few more people for the team. As soon as we get the challenge next year – we want to get started.”

Dan lets us know what it will take to make the cut and join the team: “We want to bring on people who are not just looking for something that will look good on their transcripts. We want people who are willing to work.”

Molly underscores the need to raise the bar and to be creative: “We need to do better. We need to win! It would be great if we had that 3D Printer and we could actually build the plane in 3D next year!”

Sarah testifies that the conviction and drive runs deep: “Even at the airport, the kids were on their laptops – documenting reminders of what to do next year. Forget the tour of D.C. This team would have been happier to have been given next year’s RWDC challenge right then and there. It would have made their day to have next year’s challenge in hand now!”


As we leave the Blackbirds and their coach, the energy in the room is palpable. There is no doubt in our minds that so long as there is a RWDC competition that NHS will be there competing fiercely to the end! STEM studies and RWDC are passions spreading like wildfire within the walls of NHS.


Congratulations once again to Newburyport High School, Team Blackbird, and NHS’ Technology Coach on their RWDC state championship win and their stellar performance at the RWDC Nationals. We think there’s a lot of the Beatles’ song in each of you!

Blackbird
By The Beatles

“Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly;
All your life ....
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see;
All your life ....
You were only waiting for this moment to be free.

Blackbird fly .... Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark, black night!”