Aerospace and Aviation
Aerospace Engineering (AE) is often thought of as ‘Rocket Science’ that is theoretical and extremely difficult for a common student to understand... Really, AE is one of the special disciplines of Engineering in which theory is often developed based on the empirical results- make mistakes to learn! There are several examples of both Aero and Space vehicles that were developed by trial and error. Aerospace Engineering in general is a discipline in which a lot of learning is done by hands on, experimental, operational, observational, and exploratory techniques.
The first and foremost concept is ‘how airplanes fly.’
Let's talk about the basics of aerodynamics and how lift is generated.
Career Possibilities HERE and HERE
Bernoulli’s principle is used to explain the generation of lift HERE.
Paper strip exercise is used to explain Bernoulli’s principle.
Hair dryer and ball experiment.
- Visualize lift being created to understand the concept of force and pressure.
- A ball levitating in the air because of the difference in pressure.
- Change of pressure on one surface of a body compared to another surface generates lift.
Fly radio controlled model aircraft on a flight simulator HERE.
Practice being an Air Traffic Controller HERE
History of Aerospace HERE.
A brief video of the early design concepts, failures and successes HERE.
Problems with early aircraft discussion. (Site & Videos HERE)
Fundamentals of bird flight (concepts of flapping and feathering).
Weight vs. Thrust mini project
Boyle's Law mini project
- Trajectory
- Propulsion
- Drag
- Stall
- Glide
- Dive
- Distance
- Accuracy
Practice modeling and styling of aircraft using TinkerCAD.
Identifying Parts of a Turbine Engine
Individual Project practice-
The paper plane competition gives students lots of room to think outside the box. You are encouraged to apply the concepts learned during the unit to improve on designs. You are allowed to design two different airplanes, one for range and another for endurance. You are required to do research and record flight data from your flight tests.
Want More??
Follow UP (see what I did there, haha!) with Aerospace Micro Lessons
Nasa Hunch: Designing for real problems on the ISS