This month's AE presenter: Jeff
Date of presentation: 04 Dec 2017
Subject: Presentation: Aerospace Trivia Jeopardy
Description: At enormous risk to life and limb, Jeff put together a Jeopardy-like game with five Aerospace-related topics: Zeppelin, General, Airports and Airlines, Bird Strikes, and Atmospheric Considerations. Thanks to an excellent audience warm-up by Safety Officer Sena, Jeff was able to masquerade as a fun gameshow host and guide the festivities. A good time was had by some.
04 December 2017
13 November 2017
Presentation: November 2017
This month's AE presenter: David
Date of presentation: 13 Nov 2017
Subject: UAS Rules and Regulations
Description: David will have to refresh my (Jeff's) memory on this one, as I'm afraid I do not recall what this presentation was. This is due to my own questionable memory and is no fault of David's.
Date of presentation: 13 Nov 2017
Subject: UAS Rules and Regulations
Description: David will have to refresh my (Jeff's) memory on this one, as I'm afraid I do not recall what this presentation was. This is due to my own questionable memory and is no fault of David's.
06 November 2017
Activity: Quadcopter Electronics Configuration
Date of activity: 06 Nov 2017
Subject: Quadcopter Electronics Configuration
Description: Having done some experimentation at home on his own time, David brought out the software and demonstrated some basic configuration of the electronics. The quadcopter is still not quite ready to fly, so we were unable to test that, but we could selectively run each engine separately.
Subject: Quadcopter Electronics Configuration
Description: Having done some experimentation at home on his own time, David brought out the software and demonstrated some basic configuration of the electronics. The quadcopter is still not quite ready to fly, so we were unable to test that, but we could selectively run each engine separately.
30 October 2017
Activity: Quadcopter Electronics Installation
Date of activity: 30 Oct 2017
Subject: Quadcopter Electronics Installation
Description: With the project well underway, this evening's entertainment consisted of installing the electronics that control the quadcopter. This proved not as easy as it sounds, and was not quite completed successfully in the available time.
Subject: Quadcopter Electronics Installation
Description: With the project well underway, this evening's entertainment consisted of installing the electronics that control the quadcopter. This proved not as easy as it sounds, and was not quite completed successfully in the available time.
09 October 2017
Activity: Quadcopter Assembly (start)
Date of activity: 09 Oct 2017
Subject: Quadcopter Airframe Assembly
Description: David led a few brave souls in beginning the assembly of the recently-received STEM quadcopter kit. While we were not able to complete assembly in the available time, we did get quite a bit done.
Subject: Quadcopter Airframe Assembly
Description: David led a few brave souls in beginning the assembly of the recently-received STEM quadcopter kit. While we were not able to complete assembly in the available time, we did get quite a bit done.
10 April 2017
Presentation: April 2017
This month's AE presenter: David
Date of presentation: 10 Apr 2017
Subject: Quadcopter Aerodynamics
Description: I discussed how the multi-fixed-rotor design is an alternative to conventional collective-pitch rotors. Everything is a trade-off in engineering. Long, high-aspect-ration rotors are more efficient that propellers. However, large rotors have a lot of rotating mass, so thrust changes must be made using a complex swashplate to change the rotor pitch. Quadcopters with small propellers are less efficient, but simple because thrust changes can be made by changing the speed of the fixed propeller. We discussed the aerodynamics of quad copters including handling torque, yaw pitch, roll, and lift. A key enabling technology for quadcopters is the electric motor. Although flight times are usually short to keep lightweight batteries, electric motors can have up to a 5x increase in power vs. weight when compared to internal combustion motors. The discussion concluded with a brief history of multi-rotor aircraft. The first successful helicopter in 1923 was actually a quadcopter. In the near future, we will continue to see a proliferation of small UAVs based on the quadcopter design, and perhaps personal air taxis.
Date of presentation: 10 Apr 2017
Subject: Quadcopter Aerodynamics
Description: I discussed how the multi-fixed-rotor design is an alternative to conventional collective-pitch rotors. Everything is a trade-off in engineering. Long, high-aspect-ration rotors are more efficient that propellers. However, large rotors have a lot of rotating mass, so thrust changes must be made using a complex swashplate to change the rotor pitch. Quadcopters with small propellers are less efficient, but simple because thrust changes can be made by changing the speed of the fixed propeller. We discussed the aerodynamics of quad copters including handling torque, yaw pitch, roll, and lift. A key enabling technology for quadcopters is the electric motor. Although flight times are usually short to keep lightweight batteries, electric motors can have up to a 5x increase in power vs. weight when compared to internal combustion motors. The discussion concluded with a brief history of multi-rotor aircraft. The first successful helicopter in 1923 was actually a quadcopter. In the near future, we will continue to see a proliferation of small UAVs based on the quadcopter design, and perhaps personal air taxis.
14 March 2017
Presentation: March 2017
This month's AE presenter: Jeff
Date of presentation: 13 Mar 2017
Subject: Combined Safety / AE Jeopardy Game
Description: For a change of pace, safety officer Stephen Pierce and I decided to put together a joint presentation in the form of a Jeopardy-like game. In this game we had five categories of six questions each (yes, it probably should have been the other way around!). Three categories were AE-related: Fluid Dynamics, Air Traffic Control, and Early Aviation History. (The other two were safety-related: ORM and Safety Regs.) A fourth AE category, The Final Frontier, was never used. A good time seemed to be had by all, even if the scorekeeping proved ultimately pointless.
Date of presentation: 13 Mar 2017
Subject: Combined Safety / AE Jeopardy Game
Description: For a change of pace, safety officer Stephen Pierce and I decided to put together a joint presentation in the form of a Jeopardy-like game. In this game we had five categories of six questions each (yes, it probably should have been the other way around!). Three categories were AE-related: Fluid Dynamics, Air Traffic Control, and Early Aviation History. (The other two were safety-related: ORM and Safety Regs.) A fourth AE category, The Final Frontier, was never used. A good time seemed to be had by all, even if the scorekeeping proved ultimately pointless.
21 February 2017
Presentation: February 2017
This month's AE presenter: David
Date of presentation: 20 Feb 2017
Subject: STEM kit - Quadcopter
Description: From an email sent by David on 15-Feb:
----------
I finally received the "Build a Quad Copter" STEM kit. Here is a summary of what I had put in the request for the kit:
----------
Date of presentation: 20 Feb 2017
Subject: STEM kit - Quadcopter
Description: From an email sent by David on 15-Feb:
----------
I finally received the "Build a Quad Copter" STEM kit. Here is a summary of what I had put in the request for the kit:
- Build the quadcopter with a couple senior members, include a couple cadets from Squadron 36.
- Perform a density altitude experiment:
- Fly in a cold environment, perhaps in a park outside in the morning. Baylands is a good park for this, Steven also suggested the RC park near Morgan Hill. Suspend a weight at the center of gravity, find the maximum that can be lifted.
- Fly in a warm environment, perhaps the Squadron building with seats removed and the heater running. We should see that the max weight is less.
- Give the following presentations to both Squadrons 80 and 36 as part of our AE program:
- General aerodynamics of a quad copter (Wikipedia on Vortex Ring State, Forbes article on what makes quadcopters so great for small drones).
- Use of drones, both commercial, hobby, SAR, and military.
- Effects of Density Altitude.
- (The above could be combined into one long preseo depending on the amount of content)
----------
30 January 2017
Presentation: January 2017
This month's AE presenter: Jeff
Date of presentation: 30 Jan 2017
Subject: Pan Am Flight 7
Description: Jeff's presentation for January discussed Pan Am Flight 7, which was a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser that went missing during a flight from San Francisco to Hawaii as part of a round-the-world trip in 1958. The wreckage and many bodies were found a few days later. The original report was unable to determine the cause of the crash, but recent research points to mechanical failure rather than sabotage as was originally suspected.
Download a zipped PDF of this presentation (159 KB).
Date of presentation: 30 Jan 2017
Subject: Pan Am Flight 7
Description: Jeff's presentation for January discussed Pan Am Flight 7, which was a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser that went missing during a flight from San Francisco to Hawaii as part of a round-the-world trip in 1958. The wreckage and many bodies were found a few days later. The original report was unable to determine the cause of the crash, but recent research points to mechanical failure rather than sabotage as was originally suspected.
Download a zipped PDF of this presentation (159 KB).
01 January 2017
Mea culpa...
Jeff here... I've been somewhat lax about posting my updates recently. No excuse other than laziness.
I'll be backfilling those older updates little by little, but from this point forward, I intend to be a bit more diligent about getting that information updated on time.
Have a great 2017!
I'll be backfilling those older updates little by little, but from this point forward, I intend to be a bit more diligent about getting that information updated on time.
Have a great 2017!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)