OSHKOSH (NBC 26) — In 2016, EAA's Founder's Innovation Prize competition set out to reduce the rate of in-flight loss of control accidents in experimental amateur-built aircraft by challenging EAA members to come up with a solution. Submissions from the first four years of the competition ranged from technology to training and were evaluated based on effectiveness, ease of installation and cost.
Finalists and honorable mention contestants in the Founder's Innovation Prize competitions at AirVenture 2016, 2017, 2018, or 2019 were eligible to compete in the rescheduled 2020 Founder's Innovation Prize Grand Championship this year. The final five teams competed for a $50,000 grand prize.
The winning team was selected on Tuesday, July 27th, and Mike Vaccaro, a member of the team, explained their winning technology: a small black box.
"We've taken things that have worked in the military, and we developed the hardware, we developed the software," said Vaccaro. "And we're making it available for general aviation and for experimental amateur built aviation in particular."
Incorporating this technology into private planes provides a tone to the pilot that tells them what their angle of attack is, he said, which is a key flight parameter that allows pilots to actually maintain positive aircraft control all the time.
"The whole purpose of the prize is actually to reduce aviation mishaps and primarily looking at something we call loss of control," said Vaccaro. "Where the pilot literally loses control of the airplane, typically at an inopportune moment."
