RC UNIVERSITY

Model Airplane News, Dec 2004 by Edberg, Don

Cal Poly professor gives new meaning to "higher learning"

After 20 years as a rocket scientist at Boeing, I decided to begin a new career as a professor of aerospace engineering at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona (aka Cal Poly Pomona). As a professor there, I teach a number of courses, from the freshman-level Introduction to Aerospace 101 (yes, that's really the course title!) to the capstone Aerospace Vehicle Design course for graduating seniors. While I was at Boeing, some of my pet peeves were that quite a few engineers didn't really have practical experience, and that others didn't have a good "feel" for what they were designing or analyzing. Since Cal Poly's motto is "Learn by doing," what better way to get hands-on experience than to actually build and fly (and crash and repair!) a model aircraft?

So I instituted an activity in the Aero 101 class to assemble, measure and test-fly an RC airplane and then write a report on it. I divided the class into teams of four students and provided each team with a GWS Pico Stick model kit, a Hitec or GWS RC system, assembly tools, a list of engineering items to measure (using a gram scale, a tape measure and a stopwatch) and the requirements for an engineering report. Each student then analyzed the model's flight and determined whether his or her calculations made sense.

Last year, 24 student teams spent one class session putting their aircraft together and measuring the plane's characteristics, such as mass, wingspan, chord, area, center of gravity and propeller pitch/diameter. The next class session was reserved for flight tests. The students went out to the Cal Poly "engineering meadow," a grassy area near the school's engineering buildings, where each team plotted a course on the ground. The students then attempted to fly their planes back and forth on the course while timing the flights to obtain the average flying speeds. The more ambitious students calculated the wind speed as well. (Note: you can calculate both model and wind speed by measuring upwind and downwind times on a known course length; email me at dedberg@csupomona.edu for the equation.)

Some aircraft flew so well that team members were able to pilot them without assistance, and I managed to correct a few that weren't properly trimmed before the inevitable impact. Some unlucky teams ended their flights in the trees surrounding the meadow, but all were able to eventually recover their aircraft. I reserved the gymnasium for some indoor flying as well, but although the students didn't need to worry about winds or trees, they did have to worry about flying into walls!

After the flight activities, each student reported on the performance of his or her team's aircraft. The report included all of the measurements and calculations, along with a description of how well the plane flew and why there might be some errors in the analysis or in the tests (what went wrong-and why-is probably the most important part of engineering!).

Last, there was the issue of which student would get to keep the aircraft. Each team made its own arrangement, but in most cases, one of the team members bought out the other three so that he or she could own the plane outright. (Some new modelers in the making?)

Was this a success? Absolutely! As these students continue to learn aerospace engineering, they'll already have actual experience with aerodynamics, structures, controls, propulsion and stability-not bad for a freshman class.

Editors' note: Don has established a model airplane laboratory for student research on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and he would welcome donations of surplus RC gear and materials. Those interested may contact him at dedberg@csupomona.edu.