Still Cruising

Thomas C -

Hey everyone, welcome to this week’s blog!

This week was another chill one, mostly a rather stale continuation of last week. On Monday, I am set to meet with my on-site mentor to discuss the final design of the free flight mechanism. Once this is done, we will begin ordering parts and working on building it, which I am really looking forward to!

I did not really do anything in the wind tunnel that I usually work in, however, today, I got the opportunity to help move a laser apparatus into the Mach 5 Ludwieg Tube and meet some more graduate students. It was a very big laser, delivering around 70 Watts of power. It was so heavy that it even made the wheels of the cart that we moved it with squeak!

In class, we discussed airfoils and how aerodynamics applies to them. It turns out that air flowing over your everyday airliner can be traveling at the speed of sound!

That was really it for this week, as usual the airplane of the week is the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, have fun reading about it with this article!

Until next time,

-Thomas

Arsenal: F-111

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Comments:

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    elle_m_r
    Hi Thomas! Where do you plan on ordering parts from? Is it an everyday store like Home Depot, or a more specialized shop?
    March 31, 2025 at 10:41 am - Reply
    jude_s
    Hello Thomas, it's good you're getting to this critical point of your project. Will you have to create any backup plans in case there aren't the parts you need or in case there are any issues?
    March 31, 2025 at 2:25 pm - Reply
    thomas_c
    Hey Elle, that is a good question! I plan on ordering from this website called McMaster-Carr, which is basically the Home Depot of engineering, but online.
    March 31, 2025 at 4:00 pm - Reply
    thomas_c
    Hey Jude, that is a good point! In designing this mechanism, I tried to base the design on the parts available, so that should not be a big issue. However, if something does go wrong, we can simply adjust the design accordingly. I should also mention that this is only a prototype, so the design is likely to change further down the road.
    March 31, 2025 at 4:05 pm - Reply
    adhip_j
    Hi Thomas, I love that your final project will be such a good display of your work! Do you want to continue similar work in college or has the project given you know interests?
    April 1, 2025 at 6:41 pm - Reply

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