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Introduction to Aerospace and Design

2-2-2 units · Undergraduate

Highlights fundamental concepts and practices of aerospace engineering through lectures on aeronautics, astronautics, and the principles of project design and execution. Provides training in the use of Course 16 workshop tools and 3-D printers, and in computational tools, such as CAD. Students engage in teambuilding during an immersive, semester-long project in which teams design, build, and fly radio-controlled lighter-than-air (LTA) vehicles. Emphasizes connections between theory and practice and introduces students to fundamental systems engineering practices, such as oral and written design reviews, performance estimation, and post-flight performance analysis.

Spring 2003 · Introduction to Aerospace Engineering and Design

The fundamental concepts, and approaches of aerospace engineering, are highlighted through lectures on aeronautics, astronautics, and design. Active learning aerospace modules make use of information technology. Student teams are immersed in a hands-on, lighter-than-air (LTA) vehicle design project, where they design, build, and fly radio-controlled LTA vehicles. The connections between theory and practice are realized in the design exercises. Required design reviews precede the LTA race competition. The performance, weight, and principal characteristics of the LTA vehicles are estimated and illustrated using physics, mathematics, and chemistry known to freshmen, the emphasis being on the application of this knowledge to aerospace engineering and design rather than on exposure to new science and mathematics.

Readings

  • Dava Newman. Interactive Aerospace Engineering and Design. McGraw-Hill, 2002.
    Listed reading
  • The textbook, written by the instructor, covers the topics examined in this course in greater detail.
    Listed reading
  • Author: Dava Newman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology ISBN: 0-07-235124-1 Description: ©2002 / Hardcover with CDROM Publication Date: July 2001
    Listed reading
  • Intended for both majors and non-majors taking a first course in Introduction to Aerospace Engineering or Introduction to Flight. This new text will inspire students with its integrated bound-in CD-ROM and its strong emphasis in design. Its active visual approach and inclusion of space-oriented engineering makes it ideal for the changing needs of the Aerospace Engineering field. Newman’s book is the first to include integrated multimedia, strong coverage of space flight, the design process, and extensive coverage of space flight. A CD-ROM, bound in with the book, provides extensive animations, QuickTime movies, and MATLAB ® based simulations to motivate student readers. A student design project is included to convey the importance of team orientated design in an accessible manner. All resource and multimedia materials are provided on the CD-ROM, including: PDF files of the book chapters; additional color photographs, figures, and pictures referenced in the text; multimedia animations, simulations, and vrml files. The icons in the book, namely, the CD-ROM and World Wide Web (WWW) icons, refer you to materials that are on the CD-ROM and website, respectively, not in the text. In the margins of the text you will see the CD-ROM icon with a filename, which means that the referenced resource material (photograph, animation, simulation, etc.) is linked to the CD-ROM and should be accessed and studied at that point in the chapter. The lighter-than-air (LTA) vehicle and electronics laboratory (‘Ornithopter Lab’) contain extensive multimedia materials and are referenced throughout the book, especially in Chapter 12. The WWW icon refers to the website for the text and CD-ROM where one will find a chronological listing of all the URLs referenced throughout the book.
    Listed reading

Prerequisites & course information

Prereq: None U (Fall, Spring) 2-2-2 units

Sources