Championship Awards at 2021 Singapore Amazing Flying Machine Competition

The Singapore Amazing Flying Machine Competition (SAFMC) is an annual competition jointly organised by DSO National Laboratories and the Singapore Science Centre, with support from MINDEF Singapore.  It provides a unique platform for passionate students in aviation to push the boundaries of innovation by designing and creating extraordinary flying machines based on aerodynamics principles and the science of flight. The competition resumed this year after a break in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  More than 1300 participants from primary Schools to universities took part in various categories including Paper Planes, Unpowered Gliders, Radio-Controlled Flight and Semi-Autonomous/Autonomous Drones.

Despite strong competition from many schools and the more demanding, new hybrid format comprising both virtual and physical components due to the Covid-19 situation, our North Stars have again done exceptional well and won a total of 10 awards including one 1st placing and two 3rd placings for the Championship Awards in 3 categories as follows:

Students from the award winning teams included: Koh Tze Wang, Ki’ern Ong, Alfred Lim & Matthew Tan from 4E6, Cheong Hong Wei & Ho Nhat Tien from 4E4, Keane Tan, Lim Wei Xun, Kevan Moh, Jonas Kuan & Rayson Tan from 4E3, , Chua Cheng Ye from 2E2, Donavan Nah from 2E1 and Caleb Ong from 2N2.

Our students have won first placing in the Best Performance Award for Unpowered Gliders category consecutively for 3 years.  This shows the sustained strength of our students in designing and building good gliders through our Aeronautics Applied Learning Programme. In addition, our team Aeroknights, led by Koh Tze Wang, has participated in the keenly contested Fixed-Wing Radio-Controlled Flight category since 2018 and their results have improved from Best Performance 3rd in 2018 to 2nd in 2019 and 1st in 2021. The team won championship award 3rd in 2018 and 2019, and improved to 1st in 2021. This is a testimony of the team’s resilience and determination to try harder each year and eventually became the overall champions after several misses. The team also gallantly took part in the technically demanding Semi-Autonomous category to compete with students from the various Institutes of Higher Learning, and achieved an outstanding 3rd placing in the Championship Award.

In fact, not only did all our participants display great attitude and passion during training, but they also exhibited grit and perseverance in leveling-up their flying skills and perfecting their planes, overcoming obstacles such as unavailability of flying venue, weekend training sessions and social distancing measures along the way. It was heart-warming to see our experienced pilots patiently guiding the novice, the seniors sharing flying tips with the juniors, the technically abled unselfishly helping others to repair and improve their planes, as well as the teachers motivating everyone to press on. Results aside, it was certainly an unforgettable and fruitful learning journey for all to grow and foster the North Star spirit!    

Lianhe Zaobao has published an article featuring the SAFMC and our team on 19 May in ZaoBao 逗号.  The online link for the article is: https://zbschools.sg/news/school/stories/stories-18662.