(July 4, 2008)--What do a Baylor football player, alligator wrestler, engineering student, Corporal in the Marines and a pyrotechnics expert have in common? They’re all about creative engineering and are the modern Stone Age family. Team Flinstones Take Flightwas the only Texas team chosen to compete in Red Bull’s Tampa Bay Flugtag July 19th and they’re determined to launch a winner.
Andrew Massingill and Ty Findley are senior mechanical engineering students at Baylor University (where Ty also plays on the football team), and Steve, Ty’s dad, is an inventor who – although he is back in school and working toward an MBA – has already been awarded five U.S. patents. Joined by former U.S. Marine Corps Corporal Brock Dowden and Ty’s brother Austin (a rising Baylor freshman) this team is hard working and couldn’t be more excited about flying off that 30 foot ramp into oblivion this summer.
“Our theme was all inspired by a Halloween costume I designed,” team captain Ty explains with a laugh. “We’re building the craft at my dad’s workshop in Marshall, and then somehow we’ll transport it a thousand miles to Tampa.” Budget constraints have ruled out test runs, but Ty asserts that the teammates will be using “every bit of engineering intellect” they possess to make the entry fly on its maiden voyage.