Only two students comprise the entire class roster for "Flight Simulation," a class focusing on the physics and engineering behind aerial vehicles.
"We try to make a mathematical model of different flight vehicles, such as rockets, missiles, airplanes and other aerial vehicles," said John Cochran, professor and head of the Department of Aerospace Engineering. "To make these models, you have to use different principles you have learned in physics, aerodynamics and different parts of aerospace engineering. You mix those all together, and then you simulate what the airplane is gonna do or what a missile is going to do while in flight."
The course incorporates the computer programs MATLAB and Simulink to input data. These two programs, used in many areas of engineering, are able to process the numerous forms of data entry required to accurately map a vehicle's flight path.
One of the main goals in this type of flight simulation is to make the production of these aerial vehicles more efficient.
"You can see what different types of flight vehicles can do without actually having to build them," Cochran said. "You can save a lot of money by not having to build one, test it and build another. You can change things like the wing area or the weight and virtually build it on the computer."
The class has been around for more than 20 years, but has evolved and grown over the years because of better simulation techniques.
Cochran said the technology has allowed the class to look at the flights of almost all aerial vehicles, whether a satellite orbiting thousands of miles above the Earth, rockets launched by NASA or just a weather balloon.
"It's amazing how accurate the information is," Cochran said. "The data and formulas we enter into our program can almost exactly mimic the performance of different vehicles of flight."
Clay Robertson, doctoral candidate in aerospace engineering, said he is using the class to further his research on aircrafts and their stability.
"I need this course to learn how to use MATLAB and Simulink to later apply toward my own ideas in my thesis," Robertson said. "My thesis is going to be based around the stability and control of aircrafts. The class takes what we have learned in undergraduate courses and illustrates the more complex ideas behind flight."
As the class progresses, so does the level of difficulty.
Cochran said the class starts out with simple flight vehicles and develops them into more complex projects.
"We start off by teaching how to predict how a rocket that has one degree of freedom will perform," Cochran said. "That basically means the rocket is going to go on a straight path, directly up. We then work our way to six degrees of freedom, which involves flight maneuvers like rolls."
Kevin Albardo, doctoral candidate in aerospace engineering, said he is hoping to advance his knowledge and develop his own simulation of a six-degrees-of-freedom flight.
"The most interesting thing about the class I have learned, so far, is how complex a suite of codes like this is," Albardo said.
According to Cochran, students can develop several different careers using this type of knowledge.
Graduates have worked as engineers for the military, NASA and other aeronautical institutes around the country.
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