Tater Tot Titans

Tater Tot Titans

by Leanna Ihry

Grant Ramage, a recent UND mechanical engineering grad, has always enjoyed building things and flying things. As he was trolling the Internet one day last spring, he came across an event that was the perfect pairing of those interests. “I had heard of the Red Bull Flugtag competition before and usually it was in New York or Los Angeles, but this year it was in St. Paul, so I knew we had to do it,” Ramage exclaimed!

The one-of-a-kind worldwide event challenges participants to design and construct an aircraft that will glide the greatest distance. But that isn’t all. The teams are challenged to create a unique design with a theme, and it needs to look like an airplane.

Pumped and ready for the challenge, Rampage started recruiting his UND engineering friends to join him. Five fellow students quickly jumped in and the team got to work. “To even be in the competition we had to apply and submit a sketch of our design and an essay describing why we should be in the competition,” Rampage explained.

Then there was the theme. Rampage says he knew they needed to be creative. “I had seen gliders in past competitions paying homage to the musician Prince and to the Minnesota Vikings, so we said to each other, “What’s the most Midwestern thing we can think of? And, we came up with Tater Tot Titans. Everybody around here loves tater tot hot dish,” Grant exclaimed.

Their application was accepted, and they were ready to bring their idea to life.

With a Midwestern comfort food as their blueprint, the team used their engineering skill-set to create a one-of-a-kind gigantic tater tot inspired glider! “We used foam and spray painted it to look like tater tots, painted oven mitts on the wings and a spatula on the tail,” Grant said of their masterpiece.

Many details were strongly contemplated including getting the wingspan just right to ensure the greatest distance of flight. “We really honed in on our engineering knowledge to make it the best design possible, but we also had a lot of fun,” Grant said.

With hours upon hours of design and construction work behind them, the Tater Tot Titans were ready for the big day! The Red Bull Flugtag competition (Flugtag means “Flying Day” in German), was held on Sept. 7, in St. Paul, Minnesota. The event attracted 40 teams from Minnesota and the surrounding areas in a challenge to discover which aircraft would glide the greatest distance over the Mississippi River when pushed by team members off a 30-foot cliff. Kendric Heck, a new UND alum, served as pilot of the 70-pound tater tot!

“It was an amazing experience. We didn’t win, but we got 7th place, which we were really happy with,” Grant said.

With all but one member of the Tater Tot Titans now graduated from UND, Grant says it was nice to have one final team project to do together, even though this one wasn’t for a grade — just a whole lot of memories.

“It is definitely something we won’t forget for a long time,” Grant said. ///

An aircraft replicating a massive tater tot flies high in Flugtag competition. Pictured from left: Grant Ramage, ’19, Kendric Heck, ’19, Matt Vrchota, ’19, Andrew Sather, ’19, Kyle Batten, and Karch Anderson, ’19.