Honors Engineering: Week Ten

This week I decided to look into gravity. Gravity is one of those things that we all know about, and usually have a basic understanding of, but I wanted to know a bit more about it.

Gravity is basically a force that keeps you weighted down so you don't float off into space. However, if gravity is too dense, it can actually crush you, (the proof is when people get older and their bones start getting more and more brittle, gravity is actually part of the reason why they start to slouch and "shrink"). How this relates to airplanes is based on where an airplane climbs to.

As we all know, airplanes go several thousand feet into the air before reaching "cruising speed". The reason for this is partially because of gravity density. While the plane isn't so high up people start floating around, it is high enough that it can comfortably move without the constant pressure pushing down on the plane.

A well known myth relating to gravity is that the moon is zero-gravity. This is absolutely not true. The moon has very low gravity, far lower than what we have here on earth, but it does have enough gravity that when astronauts and spaceships land on the moon, they don't immediately go floating off. (This is also why the tape of Neil Armstrong dropping something once he steps on the moon does not prove the the moon landing "wasn't real").

Honors Engineering: Week Nine

I was out of town this week, so I wasn't able to do as much research as normal. While I was out of town though, I went to a museum where there was a large display of paper. This reminded me of paper airplanes, which made me think of aerodynamics. I know a lot about how aerodynamics work, but I have heard that aerodynamics don't apply to things under a certain size, so I decided to find out what size that was.

I found out that all things are affected by aerodynamics, but their ability to fly based on that is greater the larger the object is. So, if you threw a paper airplane and a paper-ball made out of same size paper, aerodynamics will obviously favor the plane because there is less area for wind to resist against. However, the difference in distance might only be a few feet. If you have a ball the size of an actual airplane though, most likely it wouldn't even be able to get off of the ground because the level of resistance would be too great.

Honors Engineering: Week Eight

This week I decided to do a bit of research on flight navigation. My grandfather on my dad's side was a flight navigator for the military during World War Two, so I am rather interested in flight navigation.

I realized that flight navigation and regular navigation, (road maps etc.) are rather different. Flight navigation is measured in nautical miles, rather that traditional miles. Nautical miles are miles that follow the curve of the earth, whereas the miles we are used to just follow a straight line. Considering that most airplanes travel either between states, countries, or at least across the state, there is naturally going to be a noticeable curve between the start of the flight and the destination.

If you are in a car, you are so close to the ground that the curve of the earth barely matters. However, if you  are in an airplane which goes thousands of feet in the air, you have to take the curve of the earth into account or else you could land miles away from your actual destination. Also, flight navigators have to find locations based on longitude and latitude.

Honors Engineering: Week Seven

This week I decided to look into Military based-planes. I wanted to see what the real differences between military planes and commercial planes were, if any, (other than the inside seating etc). I ended up discovering there are definite differences. I also discovered that "military airplanes" go far beyond just a singular definition. So I am going to break it down by sections a bit.

Fighter planes: There are several different forms of fighter planes, some of the most famous being attack air crafts, bombers, and fighters. Attack air crafts are used primarily by the Navy and the Marines. They are only somewhat considered to be a fighter plane because their air-air combat skills aren't very good. Bombers are typically heavier than attack air crafts. They are typically used, (obviously) for bombing the ground. Fighters are used specifically for destroying other planes and ground targets.

Non-Fighter planes: Reconnaissance air crafts, logistics air crafts, helicopters and experimental air crafts are all examples of non-fighter planes. Reconnaissance planes are used mainly for intelligence purposes. The detect submarines and other objects through radar. Logistics planes are used in order to transport people and supplies, helicopters serve a similar purpose except they also perform search and rescue. Lastly, experimental planes are used for testing purposes, both testing new technology as well as "testing the waters" for lack of better words.

There are also multi-purpose planes which can be used for transportation, fighting and other things.

Honors Engineering: Week Six

Today, I decided to do a bit of research on more recent events in flight history. So far, I have only really focused on influential people in flight history, and most of them were from nearly a century ago, so I feel that it is time that I do a bit more current research. I found a short timeline of some current events in flight.

One of the biggest current events actually has to do more with aerospace engineering since it has to do with space shuttles. Unfortunately, the space shuttle launches have come to a close due to lack of proper funding, so unfortunately, we won't be seeing any more rockets going up any time soon. The rocket launches aren't exactly the same as airplanes, but they are still connected.

John F. Kennedy was in office when the launch program started. It was his and the rest of America's vision to have man walk on the moon, which we successfully completed in the mid-sixties. Before that, we had already launched several items into space, (more specifically, Russia had sent several objects into space, but none the less it was a step forward for earth in general).

But now, after fifty long years of moon landings, the program is coming to a close. Fifty years, in my opinion at least, doesn't seem so long anymore since this program still seems relatively new, but this is what is new, (or at least heavily talked about) the world of aerospace engineering.