Graduate-level design education, based on flight demonstrator projects
Introduction
The aerospace industry has a large number of technically qualified young engineers, but many of them have limited experience of practical design integration. There is a need for a process that will accelerate design experience acquisition in as realistic an environment as is possible. This requirement has been partially met by the full-time Master of Science Programme in Aerospace Vehicle Design (AVD) provided by the College of Aeronautics, since 1946 (Ref. [1]). One of the main features of the AVD course is the extensive group design project. Students pick-up the design from a previously performed conceptual design and perform on an 8-month preliminary/detail design process of some 25,000 engineer-hour expenditure of effort. The teaching on this programme benefits from extensive aircraft design research activities some of which are described in Ref. [2]. Although the AVD course continues to be successful, it requires students to commit at least 12 months of effort into attendance at the full-time course. Industrial organisations are often unwilling to release their employees onto such a programme, so a 3-year part-time programme was developed from the AVD course, entitled the Aircraft Engineering course (AE). Ref. [3] describes the early stages of the latter course, which started in February 1995 (Fig. 1).
Section snippets
Part-time master's programme structure
The Programme contains similar elements to those of the full-time Aerospace Vehicle Design Course, but it has been optimised for delivery to part-time students, who are subject to significant professional work commitments. The elements are the lecture modules, individual research projects (IRP) and participation in the Group Design Project (GDP) with assessment weightings of 30%, 30% and 40%, respectively, and are shown in Fig. 2. The elements are:(i) The lecture modules: are equivalent to those
Group design project organisation
The GDP on the full-time course in Aerospace Vehicle Design concentrates on the initial design of parts of an aircraft, which has been previously defined in terms of basic geometry, mass, performance characteristics, etc. by staff. However, BAe wished to address a greater extent of the design process in the AE MSc, with progression all the way from conceptual design, through preliminary and detailed design to manufacture, clearance and flight. In this way the students would, in the space of
Intake 1 GDP — the two-seat aerobatic aircraft
The Aircraft Engineering course was launched in February 1995 with 15 students, all from BAe Military Aircraft. The GDP that they were presented with was to work on modifications to Cranfield's own single seat A1 aerobatic aircraft; Fig. 3, which had resulted from previous M.Sc. student work, to provide a two-seat aerobatic trainer. This provided the realistic possibility for a project to progress through to manufacture and flight. However, it should be noted that at the outset there was no
Intake 2 GDP — new fin and rudder for the aerobatic aircraft
Ever since the single seat A1 aerobatic aircraft first flew in 1976 there have been attempts to improve its capabilities and flying qualities. In particular, the following year the aircraft had a more powerful engine fitted than the original unit, and a larger rudder. Even so, there are still aspects of the aircraft's handling qualities which could be further improved upon. One particular aspect is that the aircraft's flick roll capabilities leave something to be desired.
It has been generally
Intake 3 GDP — the eclipse, JET UAV
Whilst the GDP subjects for the 1995 and 1996 intakes picked-up on Cranfield's unique position as a University having its own aircraft and holding design authority and approvals to modify it, the subject chosen for the 1997 intake picked-up on another unique area of the CoA's experience.
The CoA has for many years worked for, and along with, the UK Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) on development of all the aspects surrounding small Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) particularly for
Intake 4 GDP — blended-wing-body demonstrator
There is considerable interest around the world at present in Blended Wing/Body (BWB) configurations. These have been suggested for a number of different roles, in particular, very large, 600+, passenger airliners and global-range military transport aircraft. They represent an attempt to side-step the law of diminishing returns we see in trying to extract further gains in efficiency (both fuel and economic) from the conventional distinct wing, fuselage, tail surface configurations. However,
Intake 5 GDP — H.A.L.E. research UAV
The subject chosen for the GDP for the most recent intake on the AE course is again that of a UAV. However, the role is different to that of either of the previous two GDP UAVs.
The CoA has for some time had an interest in environmental monitoring of the atmosphere and in fact has operated a Jetstream aircraft to sample exhaust gas plumes for power stations, etc. In addition, the Astronautics and Space Engineering Group within the CoA has an interest in remote-sensing, both the technologies
The AE programme
It was stated in Ref. [3] that “The course has been enthusiastically greeted by students and staff within the companies, and at Cranfield..... The basic formula has, been shown to be sound, despite its complexity”. These comments are still true, after another two years of experience with all elements of the course.
There is no disguising the fact that the AE course as a whole is very demanding and, as a result, students have withdrawn from the course. It requires a student to study over three
Conclusions
Both full-time AVD and part-time AE programmes are complex and demanding, but they have a proven record of providing high-quality, experienced and mature designers and engineers.
Although the GDPs, are and will continue to be very demanding of both students and staff involved, they provide an effective approach to tackling the problems of an engineer gaining real practical experience in today's employment environment.
Within the relatively short time period for which it has been running, the GDP
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