The National Soaring Museum in Elmira, N.Y., sponsored the RIT team to design and build it. The team will present the Replica to the museum at a dedication ceremony in July. According to Kochersberger, Chanute collected a significant amount of aerodynamic data after performing more than 700 successful glider flights. He willingly shared his information with the Wright brothers and other pioneers to help develop more advanced flying machines. RIT's mechanical engineering Senior Design course challenges students to tackle real-world projects.
Most students spend one quarter drafting the project design and the second building the prototype.
Teams present their prototypes at course's end to their classmates, professors, sponsors and interested members of the RIT community.