HYDERABAD: From tip-toeing to the Begumpet airport and watch an aircraft fly past to bringing about a revolution in aerodynamics, this Osmania University alumnus dared to pursue his dream and bring rare laurels to his city.
After 20 years of intense research, which was funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) and the US Air Force, Sridhar Kota, an OU gold medalist, has built a shape changing flap for aircraft wings, which aeronautical experts worldwide have said will bring down jet fuel costs by up to 12% and reduce noise during take off and landing by a staggering 40%.
Settled in Michigan now, Kota, son of KV Subrahmanyam, a retired Indian Airlines employee, said he was proud to have achieved his dream, once Nasa recognized it and termed his creation as a "revolutionary wing" on its website.
"I had the privilege (for a middle class family in the 1970s) to fly when I was young, because my father used to get two free tickets per year as an employee of Indian Airlines. That certainly catalyzed my fascination with airplanes," Kota told TOI on telephone from Michigan.
Kota developed the prototype wing in his garage, which he showcased to Nasa and the air force.
"I have been fascinated by machines, motion, mechanisms, and anything that moves — and yes aircraft always fascinated me and they still do," said 55-year-old Kota, the youngest of six siblings, who grew up in Secunderabad's Shivaji Nagar.
The new wing was fitted to a Gulfstream business jet aircraft on November 6 and flown successfully by the US Air Force and Nasa, after FlexiSys, a company set up by Kota in 2001 developed it. Nasa and the US Air Force had pumped in over $ 40 million to aid FlexSys's research, Kota said.
Kota, who migrated to the USA in 1984 to do his MS, graduated from OU's mechanical engineering department in 1980.
Describing his journey to the USA and his research as very eventful, Kota said he wanted to invent the flap as he was interested in nature's flexible shapes. When he contacted the US Air Force with a design for flexible wing about 20 years ago, he was surprised to get a warm welcome.
"I was told that the Air Force, Nasa, aircraft manufacturers and researchers around the world have been working to come up with a practical design to change the shape of the wing in flight for decades! They immediately saw the benefits of my compliant design approach - lightweight, no moving parts, durable, robust and its ability to change its shape on demand," he said.
After it was tested and proved effective, several aircraft manufacturing units have expressed their interest in using the newly invented wing, Kota said during the telephone conversation.
His teachers, who are all retired, still have fond memories of their student. "He was a quiet, but brilliant student. I remember him as a smart and very efficient person. We all knew he would go a long way," said retired Prof V S Vishnu Botla, who taught Kota in OU.
In the US, Kota bagged two MS degrees from two different universities and he was awarded a PhD by University of Minnesota. He currently has 25 patents under his name and is now Herrick Professor of mechanical engineering in University of Michigan. He has also served in the White House as assistant director for advanced manufacturing.
His brother K Nageshwar, who is also an inventor, said Kota showed promise since his childhood.
"Some boys in the university wanted to prevent him from writing his final year B Tech examination as they did not want him to score the top rank. I used to double up as a guard for him, picking and dropping him at the university," Nageshwar, who is based out of Chennai, said.
The OU alumnus could be coming to the city in January 2015 to deliver an expert lecture in mechanical engineering department of OU. "We are proud of his achievement. At a time when OU is celebrating its Platinum Jubilee, we will be proud to have him among our midst," said Sriram Venkatesh, HoD, mechanical engineering, OU.
