TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA QATAR Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) joined hands with the Museum of Flight (MoF) from Seattle, Washington, at this year’s Al Khor Airfield Fly-In held recently.

The event attracted around 5,000 people and was organised by the open Fly-In-Day organising committee.

“The Museum of Flight was pleased to accept the invitation from Qatar Foundation to participate in this event and we have been impressed with the response to some of our most popular aviation outreach programmes. There is a local hunger for more information about our industry, particularly concerning what exciting changes the future will bring,” said Seth Margolis, MoF director of education.

The Al Khor event, now in its fifth year, has grown rapidly and the event’s organisers seek to make it a permanent annual outreach educational programme. The purpose of the Fly-In was to motivate young Qatari men and women to take up careers in science, engineering, and technology in the future, with a particular emphasis on aviation.

This year’s event highlighted many of the existing aviation activities in Qatar, including the Qatar Flying Club, Qatar Aeronautical College and the Qatar Sports Aviation Authority.

The Qatar Civil Aviation Authority also provided a display focused on the science behind aviation technology.

Several education programmes were offered, including the ‘Flying Gizmos Show’, which was designed to teach the history of flight using only toys. A second programme, titled ‘Robotics’, challenged participants to build their own Mars Rover in less than 30 minutes with limited parts and fundamental instructions. This hands-on problem- solving workshop was intended to create awareness for future engineering projects.

The third education programme involved constructing a flying toy plane out of paper, allowing only 15 minutes for participants to build and fly their designs. The models included straw rockets and airships, among other creative flying objects.

More than 1,200 young people participated in making and testing their planes. Additionally, visitors were allowed to fly as passengers around the airfield and to share the controls of the planes with the pilots.

The fly-in provided the opportunity to learn about the aviation industry — particularly in Qatar and the Gulf region, where the market for planes is growing — and offered a platform for those with privately owned aircrafts to take part.