This was the Human Powered Paper Vehicle Competition's first year. We only had four teams participating and the rules were finished only a few weeks before the event was scheduled to take place. The teams all worked hard to be ready in time and with no previous designs to refer to, creativity was the order of the day.

Jim Ruch, the chair of EWU's Technology Dept., designed the ramp for the competition. He and Rick Lewis, the head of SCC Mechanical Engineering Technology program, put it together for the first time the morning of the race. There were only a few curious spectators watching the races that first year and some friends, who thought this whole thing sounded kind of strange, but decided to show up anyway.

Building the ramp

We learned a lot and had fun that year. We took the lessons learned, and there were more than a few, from that first competition, and focused our efforts on making improvements for the 1998 competition.

Once again, thanks to all.
Sincerely
Keith Turpin