UTC After School Aviation program Session 2

Session 2

Today started with a quick review of flight, last week's class. Using a radio controlled A380 model, students answered questions about control surfaces, dynamics if flight and thrust.

The primary lesson for today was an intro to 3D drawing. The students began by representing basic objects as drawing. Each drawing had to provide enough information for the object to be duplicated.

After drawing on paper we transitioned to using 3D drawing software. Students worked in groups of threes or fours to freely explore Autodesk 123D, a piece of 3D drawing freeware. The software can be found at www.123dapp.com .

After some free exploration we covered creating 3D objects, folders and components, creating exact size objects and modifying the size and shapes of objects.

During session 3 students will Autodesk123D to design elevon connectors which will be printed for use on the airplanes they construct.

UTC After School Aviation program Session 1

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.