Civil Aviation Authority creating the Attaching Suitcase Prototype
The Civil Aviation Authority are a regional partner for our Leaders Award competition which asks pupils aged 3-19 the question “If you were an engineer, what would you do?”. As part of this continued partnership, they have selected a pupil’s idea submitted to our Leaders Award competition to turn it into a working prototype over the 2024/2025 academic year.
Anna’s original competition design
Pupil designer Anna, a pupil in Year 4, will see her engineering idea the ‘The Attaching Suitcase’ turned into a reality! Her idea is a suitcase that will be able to attach to multiple suitcases allowing them to be seamlessly pulled altogether with one hand.
Introduction to the ProtoTeam
The Civil Aviation Authorities ProtoTeam has a range of experience and skills consisting of:
Brenda Jefcoate – STEM Lead
James Evans – STEM Apprentice
Karena Moore-Millar – Innovation Service Specialist
Chris Malbon – Environmental Strategy
Colin Greenwood – Airworthiness Technical Surveyor
Akhil Sharma – Airspace Specialist
Stuart Rankin – Aircraft Systems Radio Engineer
Manali Pallegar – STEM Project Coordinator
Why have they chosen this pupil idea?
The Attaching Suitcase was a standout design which showcased an inspiring way of connecting suitcases when navigating through an airport and other locations. The creativity of the design and the theme of aviation won over the teams’ choice of selecting this design to bring to life. Alongside the design, Anna’s description as to why the invention was created and what stemmed the idea allowed us to finalise on this design to challenge the skills and experience of the team. The design also brings forward exciting challenges in the way of how the attaching of the suitcase operates and aviation related factors that lines up perfectly for the CAA ProtoTeam to combat.
Starting the prototype
As the team is based across different departments and locations in the UK, the teams planning has mainly consisted virtually for the initial planning stage. Included in this stage was a team’s call with Anna and her teacher to first of all applaud Anna on the design, but to also get more of an understanding of how Anna wanted the Attaching Suitcase to be made. The information that was gathered from the call allowed us to go away and brainstorm different variations and possible connections that would operate how Anna would like, but also operate within an airport and on an aircraft. The team have in person meetings organised coming up to allow everyone to get in a room and put the ideas into action to trial different connection and designs.