North Carolina Chapter - Girl Scout STEM Outreach

The North Carolina Chapter of the Society of Flight Test Engineers recently supported a STEM outreach event with a local Girl Scout Brownie troop, where chapter president Lee Bell introduced eight Girl Scouts to flight test engineering and the basics of flight. The outreach focused on helping the girls understand what flight test engineers do, how aircraft are tested, and how lift, weight, thrust, and drag affect aircraft performance.

During the event, the Girl Scouts completed a hands-on engineering activity by building “fling flyers” and flight testing their designs. The girls observed how design choices affected flight performance, made adjustments, and tested again, giving them a practical introduction to the engineering design and test process. By the end of the activity, all eight Girl Scouts earned their Fling Flyer Design Challenge Badge, which is part of the Brownie Mechanical Engineering badge set. The event was a great opportunity for the NC SFTE Chapter to support local STEM outreach, introduce young girls to aerospace and flight test engineering, and show how engineering can be both technical and fun.