STM has been among the finalists of the 8th Technology Awards of Turkey, given to encourage companies that develop innovative products and technologies to bring to fore Turkey’s technology potential.

Within the framework of the Technology Awards created by TÜSİAD (Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association), TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) ve TTGV (Technology Development Foundation of Turkey), STM earned the opportunity to compete against 9 finalist in the category of large/affiliated companies with its Vertical Wind Tunnel Project, built for the first time in Turkey with a national design and used to meet the training requirements of free-fall parachutists of the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF).

In accordance with the contract signed between STM and the Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (SSM), STM undertook and delivered the construction of the said tunnel and related facilities, design of the automatic control systems and software development for the control systems. The Vertical Wind Tunnel, which operates on a closed-loop basis, is a system that allows freefalling training under all weather conditions. The system is capable of maintaining the temperature of the air circulating in the system through air exchange caps, which allows uninterrupted training opportunities in winter conditions by maintaining a higher indoor temperature. Moreover, the tunnel allows an average of 90% saving on the cost of aircrafts that would otherwise be required to take off for every training session.

41 projects applied for the 8th Technology Awards. The Technology Awards, restructured to reach a larger audience in terms of different company sizes and sectors, announced the finalists for 4 groups based on company sizes: ‘micro’, ‘small’, ‘medium’ and ‘large or affiliated’. In this scope, it was stated by the Award Committee that a total of 26 finalists will be competing for project awards at the finals, as follows: 10 large/affiliated companies, 4 medium sized companies, 6 small sized companies and 6 micro sized companies.

Companies winning the award was announced at the Award Ceremony on June 25, 2009 at the Sabancı Center.

For more information, please visit: http://www.teknoloji.org.tr.