“This is a quintessential MIT project,” said team captain Thalheimer. “We’ll take a zany, comedic challenge from Red Bull, apply our rigorous MIT AeroAstro education to it, and take it over as only MIT hackers can do.”
An MIT press release said that the students being “armed with a year of composites manufacturing and ultralight design experience” makes Monkey Ballers the odds-on favorite to win this year’s Flugtag. However, the team estimates that it will cost about $15,000 to complete development and construction of its aircraft, so it created a crowdfunding page to get the necessary funding.
The Monkey Ballers will post updates on their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. Interested individuals can contact flugtag@mit.edu to learn more or to lend their engineering expertise.
