Aeronautics Club Forms at Yorktown High School

A new club has taken flight at Yorktown High School.

YCSD is excited to announce the launch of the Aeronautics Club, which was founded by Sharik Bose, a talented and passionate sophomore student who has already won several prestigious awards for his designs.

Sharik’s fascination with aeronautics started in elementary school, where he would regularly build Lego airplanes and successfully figured out how to make his models fly, earning himself the “Best in Class” award at the Maker Faire in New York City. Sharik’s passion and skills continued to grow throughout his academic career, as he learned to construct model aircraft and program voice-controlled drones.

Now, Sharik has launched the Aeronautics Club as a way to share his know-how with other students and provide them with a head-start for potentially pursuing higher-level education or a career in an exciting field.

Sharik shared what excites him about the club: “The thing that excites me about aeronautics is that it allows me to enjoy the outdoors and I belong to an industry that’s constantly improving and innovating. This hobby builds the skills of team-building, communication, and engineering.”

The goal of the Aeronautics Club is to learn how to build and program a drone to complete a specific set of missions. Their drone, classified as an “uncrewed aircraft system,” will participate in the UAS4STEM competition sponsored by the Academy of Model Aeronautics. The virtual preliminary competition will take place in April, with the top teams receiving invitations to the National Competition in July at AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

The club’s team name is the Corntographers, a play on the word cartographers.

The club’s advisor is science teacher Paul Rubeo. He said Sharik approached him with the idea to start the club, which held its first meeting in December. “It is very early on and I’m excited about it,” Mr. Rubeo expressed.

The club will also welcome guest speakers and industry experts so students can hear and learn more about innovation and future opportunities in aviation.

Sharik said he can’t wait for what the New Year will bring for the Aeronautics Club: “It’s going to be an exciting 2023!”