Tuesday at U-Design

July 29, 2014 at 11:21 am

As we were building our airplanes today our mood music was actually listening the Boston Logan Control Tower.  You can listen to ATC streaming live here.

In the morning, many of our students were busy finishing their Cadet Balsa planes.  Others started building some more advanced White Wing Biplanes.

We also visited the Boston University Smart Lighting Center where the students learned about new LED lighting methods.

In the afternoon students continued to work on their airplanes.

In the afternoon, Joe Estano  showed us a working jet engine. This small jet engine only exerts about 25 lbs. of force but was LOUD!

Small Working Jet Engine

Then, our mentor David Millner gave us a lesson on how to fly a plane.  He explained the instrument panel and gave us a lesson on how to play Flight Simulater.

flight_simulator_tutorial_16_cessna_instrument_panelinstrumentPanel

He showed how the instrument panel on a Cessna 172 works.  We explored the function of the following instrument in the below diagram (going clockwise): Airspeed indicator, the attitude indicator, the altimeter, the turn & slip coordinator, the Heading indicator, and the Vertical Speed indicator.  He demonstrated how these instruments work on Flight Simulator on the projector.   You can by a home copy of  Microsoft Flight Simulator which we have been using in class for less than $20.  Joysticks can be bought for $20 but Rudder Pedals are more expensive at about $100, although they are not necessary.

We finished the day with an explanation of how Jet Engines work by Professor Sheryl Grace.  We got into the mathematics of jet engines and did some calculations on the efficiency of jet engines.

By Gary Garber | Posted in Physics