Rising to meet the CHALLENGE
Student teams from kindergarten to college are invited to accept the Hammond Northshore Airshow STEM challenges. Build your own aircraft and fly your modified drones to satisfy that inner engineer. Get involved in competitions to show off your innovations.
airshow activities
mission patch
Design a mission patch with your team. Historically the mission patch is an emblem designed and worn by astronauts and the people affiliated with a mission. The patch depicts an image associated with the mission and generally lists the names of the crew.
(Required for all competitors)
3...2...1... Take off
Construct small paper x-planes and fly them by producing your own thrust, by blowing air through a drinking straw.
(Recommended for kindergarten-3)
Coding on mars
Create a video game that lets players explore the Red Planet with a helicopter like Ingenuity currently on Mars with NASA’s Perseverance rover. Use Scratch, a visual programming language and think like NASA space-mission planners to design your game!
(Recommended grades 5-12)
competition / challenges
X-Plane Glider
Apply the engineering design process (EDP) to design an X-plane Glider that meets specific design criteria and constraints.
(Recommended grades 3-8)
UAV Propeller Design
Create and test your individual, unique designs on hand-built propeller cars and then improve performance by making changes to the original design.
(Recommended grades 5-8)
Let it Glide
Using the engineering design process, competitors will develop and build a shoebox glider, and then improve it in terms of aircraft and wing materials, shapes, and structure, to produce the greatest glide slope (the ratio of the distance traveled to decrease in altitude) possible.
(Recommended grades 5-8)
Core samples from mars
Using the engineering design process, competitors will develop and build a drone attachment limb for collecting samples scattered across a drone flight area and pilot their drone to collect as many samples possible in the shortest time possible.
(Recommended grades 9 and up)
The material contained on this page is based upon work supported by a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) grant or cooperative agreement. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of NASA.
In 1992 the Balloon and Airshow Festival took what was expected to be a short hiatus. Little did we know it would last until 2018!
In late 2014, even before he took office, newly-elected Mayor Pete Panepinto heard the opinions and desires of many Hammond residents and began planning to bring the Airshow back. A short time later Mayor Panepinto, a pilot and aviation enthusiast himself, tasked his Airport Director with serious planning to bring back the show.
The process wasn't easy. But we assembled a fantastic group of passionate community volunteers who put together a phenomenal show. Ask anyone who was there when the Airshow returned in 2018. The show truly took your breath away and paved the way for a permanent return of our beloved Hammond Airshow. Just wait to see what we have planned next!
Look up to the sky, Hammond, and prepare to be inspired!
