Big Blue: A student project to create an inflatable wing aerial vehicle

BIG BLUE is a comprehensive aerospace project experience to design, build and conduct a complex, high altitude experiment to verify the feasibility of inflatable-wing technology for Mars exploration. To date, three successful high-altitude experiments have been completed, along with participation in a student unmanned aerial vehicle competition. From the workforce development perspective, students involved in BIG BLUE join the aerospace workforce while participating in the challenging research-oriented project, which influences their decision to choose and pursue an aerospace career. Two of the University of Kentucky professors overseeing the project, Suzanne Weaver Smith and Jamey Jacob, discuss the programs journey, which comes to an end in 2007 with the final flight of BIG BLUE V.

The project is spearheaded by Suzanne Weaver Smith , Ph.D., associate professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kentucky

Watch a program that aired on the Research Channel about the project: