Abbott’s Second Annual Design Competition!

Author’s Pre-note: I apologize, but I haven’t quite yet figured out how to upload pictures. I promise to look into this and try to make this thread colorful soon! Otherwise, enjoy. Non-grumpy/cranky person comments are welcome!

On Saturday, Abbotts Aerodome found itself host to the The Second Annual Design Competition. The competition was sponsored by Abbots Aerodome, Terrabucks Coffee, and none other than the second-world renown: Cubey Terra. Mr. Terra is unmatched in his prowess for designing and programming only the highest quality aircraft and other recreational vehicles. Helping him staff the event was the Mistress of Aerial Combat Systems, Jillian Callahan, as well as the dog fighting ace, Arrekusu Muromachi. Their goal? It may have been related to finding the best way to send Cubey to the moon. Or a penguin. But ultimately, it was to find the best Lunar Lander that any competitor could enter.

The contest attracted as many different participants as it did craft. From modern Astronauts, such as Moebius Overdrive, to Spacemen from the future, to alien penguins themselves. Or at least, alien penguins are one explanation on what would have brought such bizarre craft as the penguin landers featured in the contest. But whether they are space penguins or normal penguins, we all know why they came to Abbotts. As Arrekusu Muromachi put it best: “9 out of 10 penguins agree that they wakeup with a cup of Terrabucks Coffee.”
No penguins won the contest, unfortunately. But throughout a series of interviews, we were made aware of a rumored fondness that Cubey Terra has for all penguin-kind.

The rules stated that a lunar lander was to be constructed for each contestant, and to be entered by noon on Saturday. A combination of landers was presented. Ranging from light-designed auto-gyrating spacecraft to large puff-cushion landers, there was something for everyone, and room for anyone else whom felt the urge to enter.

Contestants found themselves facing down lag as the clock grew closer to noon. Shortly thereafter, Abbotts crashed, and the judging was delayed for a few minutes. However, life soon continued as usual, or as normally as it gets when you have some very important aircraft designers looking over your design in detail. The stress built up… and as quickly as it began, the judges had finished casting their votes, adjourned, and left to go their separate ways. After all, the contest results weren’t due to be announced for another seven hours

The contestants waited. Some new contestants showed up, hoping to get in, only to be turned away as the deadline had passed. Other contestants found parts of their landing craft misplaced, due to the crash. Avena Marshall, Bunnygirl and Builder of the ‘Hopper Lander’ was one such unfortunate victim. As we inspected her entry and caught the flaws, her first response was: “Seems when the sim crashed, it undid teh changes I made >.<.” Ultimately, two tubes with lights were supposed to lowered into her craft, which instead, were floating above the feeds to her engine. Avena had spent a week on her entry.

Several hours passed uneventfully, except for a few contestants getting ran over by an airplane or two. This reporter herself is still recovering from a trauma blow to the head. Quoting herself: “It was like, one moment the sky was blue, and then it was a blur of purple. The next I saw, I was laying on top of Arrekusu Muromachi.” Apparently, Arrekusu had gotten hit by the same plane, and their combined collision after impact saved both of their lives in some sort of freak act of anti-physical nature.

 

As the contest drew to an end, it became clear who the winners were. With 24 points, Jimbo Perhaps won one third place, drawing in 500L$, a Gazelle Helicopter made by Jillian Callahan, and a third place trophy. However, he was not present for the ceremony.

Coming in with 25 points, Moebius Overdrive was awarded second place for his lander entry. Graciously walking up to the stage wearing none-other than a NASA spacesuit, his ‘all systems go’ approach to his lunar lander entry became clear. His reward for second place was 1,500L$, a Jillian Callahan Huey Helicopter, and a second place trophy.

No one was surprised when JC Hill’s Luna-025 came out on top. JC Hill has become known for such products such as the ‘Infiltrator’ and the ‘Tank’, both high prim, high detail vehicles which he sells on SL Exchange. When we talked to JC earlier in the day, he said that the hardest part of his project was working with only thirty prims. With a staggering 29 points, the revolutionary craft earned JC the 3,000L$ grand prize, along with a Jillian Callahan AH-6J Helicopter, and a grand first place trophy.

After the contest, the SL Times interviewed Arrekusu Muromachi and the Second Place Winner, Moebius Overdrive.

In our interview with Arrekusu Muromachi, she described how she came to work at the Abbotts Aerodome, her love for the art of flying, and how the Design Competition came to be.

How did she get to the position? Arrekusu ‘Originally, I was hired on to help run events in the Aerodrome. During the early autumn of 2005, Cubey Terra stepped out and no one was left to help maintain the Aerodrome. I was given the promotion to help oversee prim cleanup and security.’

She joined up with Abbotts because of her ‘love for aircraft. I used to hang around there flying various craft and eventually started building my own.’

Arrekusu loves all forms of transportation — except cars. ‘I’ll be honest. I can’t drive.’ She said.

When asked if she would prefer driving in a tank, she said ‘Depends on the situation. Often I seek peaceful means before I strike. But having a few rounds of AP or Explosive shells around would come in handy.’

But most of all, Arrekusu loves the ‘romance’ of dog fighting. ‘The thrill of being up there in the air, dancing with your foe, knowing that you may die today or survive to fight another day. And being able to see your opponent…at least their plane. There was some skill in fighting back then. Complex aerobatic maneuvers to dodge gunfire from enemy craft. It was like a ballet of sorts.’ Arresuku recalled, similar to how an old world war vet would recall dancing in the skies. After all, those all contributed to the stories of the Red Baron and the Allied Air Aces of the First World War. Arresuku was nice enough to show us some of her old craft. She described it to be her ‘earliest rendition’ of her first craft. ‘It was supposed to be based off the Hughes H-1 Racer. You’ll know what I’m talking about if you watched the movie. “The Aviator”’

Arrekusu was present for the first design contest. Stating, ‘The design contests spurred from a failed weekly event that I was trying to host. Trying to build using a certain theme or specific prims.’ When asked if she knew of the Shelter’s ‘Building Shelter’, she replied ‘Actually…I’m unfamiliar with events that go on with The Shelter.’

Accordingly, ‘The December 2005 contest was the first major which spanned over a period of time and offered a greater prize. (It) was themed on any flyable design based off the Terra DIY Airplane kit.’

Of course, there were differences between this year and last year’s contests, and Arresuku agreed. When asked what she judged the entries upon, she stated ‘I had a mix when I was judging. Mainly appearance, feasibility of the design, and originality. Feasibility would base my critique on how well it would actually work if it were to be built and tested on the moon. Appearance was my muse. How well the craft looked texture and design wise. Originality being well… Original. Not everyday you see a Penguin Lander…Or that interesting “Woman from Venus” design.’

Moebius Overdrive discussed how he came to the realm of second life. Moebius is a self described ‘space cadet’ whom worked on some projects for NASA in his first life. His website can be found here: http://www.lunadude.com/ . It features many interesting videos and his personal resume.

Moebius found out about the contest Wednesday night, and spent a few hours each night working on his lunar lander design. He started out with the following sketches, and worked his way up. He stated his main conflicts were balancing a realistic and a science-fiction approach, fighting anime influences. ‘the 30 prim limit was real tough at first, but spent some time prim mangling and got some good options’ and fitting his design under 30 prims. After the initial design was done, Moe was left with the usual battle of the textures.

Moe entered as a personal challenge, and said ‘I did really like to see the diverse designs presented by the other entrants. They went in directions I hadn’t even considered. (It was) good for the creative input.’

 

When asked if there was anything he would say to our readers, Moe gave his words of wisdom. ‘Keep banging the rocks together. That is how you make progress, and have fun in whatever you do.’

Moe said that he thought the he likes the trophy, and that ‘the moon is kewl’ – On the trophy, that is. We didn’t take a comment about the moon in general. Moebius plans on learning vehicle scripting. ‘I want to use mine to learn about vehicle scripting, never don’t that before.’ Now that the contest is over, he plans on making some sort of story with it. Keep an eye on his website to see what he comes up with!

 

Picture Gallery;

Avena Marshall’s Entry;

Moebius Overdrive’s Entry

‘Athene’ made by Scifer Fielding

 Award’s Ceremony;