Wing tip

Drones. Helicopters. Quadcopters. They all have to do with aerospace engineering. The first quadcopter was made in 2008 (Brain,2015). Aerospace engineering is a great career pathway for people who enjoy spacecraft and aircraft. Some questions people have about aerospace engineering are; “What is aerospace engineering? How can you become an aerospace engineer? What are a couple good colleges to go to for aerospace engineering? Why do people want to become aerospace engineers?” All of these…

Most of the time, paper airplanes don’t exactly match other planes. They can either fly upwards, downwards, left, right, or sometimes even straight. No matter what type paper is used, it can never match a professional’s paper airplane. All of this is due to the design of the plane. For example, if the plane is perfectly built but has a round nose rather than a sharp nose, it won’t be able to fly far. The three factors that can make a good paper airplane are aerodynamics, gravity, and balance.…

The Chance Vought F4U Corsair The Vought F4U Corsair is arguably the greatest and most effective single-engine fighter plane ever utilized by the United States (U.S.) military. Its service timeframe ranges from mid-WWII through the Korean War and into the fighter jet age. While it did have a shaky and unsure start in life, the Corsair would prove itself repeatedly throughout its time in service. The Corsair came in to being because of a need by the U.S. Navy for a new carrier-based fighter…

In flight there are four basic components; thrust, drag, lift, and weight. Newton’s laws and The Bernoulli Principle are the explanation of how everything works. Balance of force is a very important part of it. If the upward force is greater than the gravitational force imposed on an object, the object will go up. If the gravitational force is greater, then the object will go down or remain on the ground. World War I was the first time that airplanes were used on a large scale. At the start of…

Air hockey is a fun, mindless activity for everyone to play but do you really know the complex science behind it? Air hockey involves concepts from Newton’s three laws of motion. The science behind air hockey is all based off of Newton’s laws. The air hockey table allows the puck to glide easily and certain forces are required to move the puck, stop the puck, and accelerate the puck. Also, for every force applied on the puck, there is always an equal and opposite reaction. The next few…

In his article “How we Listen to Music”, Aaron Copland (1988) states that music is listened to on three different planes. Copland describes them as the sensuous plane, the expressive plane, and the sheerly musical plane. The reasoning for listening to music for the pure rhythm and harmony is the sensuous plane. The sensuous plane is where “one turns on the radio while doing something else and absent mindedly is engendered by the mere sound and appeal of the music” (Copland). People who apply…

The T-41 (i.e., the military version of the Cessna 172) had a "simple mechanical" flight control system using direct mechanical linkages. Direct feedback of forces acting on the control surfaces to the control stick (or yoke) provided a natural feel. The feedback was by the "seat of the pants". The trim system was a mechanical linkage connected directly to a trim control wheel in the cockpit. There is no warning in the T-41 if the trim was set incorrectly. It is the pilot’s responsibility…

Did you know parachutes come in all kinds of different shapes? The shapes vary from circles to triangles. However which one is the fastest? There are many factors that effect the speed of parachutes. Kinetic and potential, for example, influence the parachutes speed and movement. When a skydiver jumps out of an airplane gravity pulls him towards the ground and he doesn’t have enough air resistance to safety land on the ground. That’s where the parachute comes in! When the skydiver pulls the…

Ornithopter The Human-Power Ornithopter, a wing-flapping device, was designed in 1485 with the intent to fly. However, there is no evidence that he attempted to build the machine, but his ideas of human powered flight device followed for the next several hundred years. His inspiration came from birds or bats, which lead to the two-wing device feature. The wingspan exceeded 33 feet and the frame consisted of pine covered in raw silk, which is light but sturdy. The pilot, laying down in the…

reason behind the designing of oblique wings. This design has been found to reduce wave drag for a supersonic aircraft and can be believed as an aerodynamic evolution to swept wings on symmetric aircraft configurations. This wing is not symmetric at supersonic speeds, but rotates about a central pivot, which allows the maximum cross sectional area perpendicular to the flow to be half that of a similar symmetric design. The…