Intro to the Program:
The UTC Aerospace Systems After School Aviation Program is composed of 2 hour class sessions for 7 weeks. The primary goal of the class sessions is to explore the concepts of aviation and flight in a creative, hands on way. The program culminates in the construct a delta wing fuselage aircraft (towel airplane) http://brooklynaerodrome.wordpress.com/ to fly via remote control.
Students will be able to take their airframes home, minus the motors, electronics and controls. Each student will be provided with a list of resources should they choose to fit their airframe with the needed equipment at home.
In addition to constructing towel airplanes, students will also take part in two sessions focused on rapid prototyping. These sessions will touch on the basics of 3D drawing and design as a tool to produce parts for their finished airplanes. Parts designed during this session will be printed in ABS plastic with a deposition type rapid prototype machine (3D printer). These parts will become critical functional components for each student's airplane.
Session 1
The first session of the after school Aviation program had a great turnout. We went over the following topics:- lift, thrust and drag
- control surfaces- ailerons, elevators and rudders
- Bernoulli force
- 3 axis of rotation - roll, pitch and yaw
The students created paper airplanes to test fly before using them to find the 3 axis of rotation.
We used a 5 foot wing span A380 model to explore thrust as well as the positions and functions of the elevators, ailerons and rudder.
Using Dip-er-doo gliders students tested how adjusting control surfaces can control the flight of the planes. http://diperdo.com/our_products.html
We ended the session with a virtual test flight on X-Plane. http://www.x-plane.com/desktop/landing-alt1/?utm_expid=25103718-8
Next week we will look at 3D drawing and rapid prototyping.
