Aeronautical Engineering Semester 1 highlights

It’s been an exciting and busy semester for Aeronautical Engineering students in the Department of Engineering.  First year students have been getting to grips with laboratory equipment including the wind tunnel, along with getting their first taste of design software that is in such demand in industry.  They are also looking forward to their Aeronautical Applications lectures and the use of the flight simulator, which start after Christmas. 

 
Final year students have been starting to develop their final proposals for the Engineering Project module, there’s some exciting projects around pilot fatigue and error, an airliner go-around monitoring system and work on a redesign of the Airbus flight deck. 

Foundation students have been learning about engineering principles and getting practical experience with the labs, as well as having specialist lectures on air crash investigation, human factors and aircraft pressurisation so that they can start to build on this once they’re in the second year.

Students recently went on a visit to see the Airbus manufacturing facility in Broughton, where wings for the A320 and A350 are manufactured. They saw the manufacturing, assembly and final test areas of the facility. 

Final year students will be further preparing their Final Year Projects which they will showcase to industry at GradEx.  This is a valuable opportunity to network with potential employers.  Guest judges will be attending from local industry.

 
Some final year students are also going on a visit to a commercial 737 simulator with their lecturer who has an instructor rating on the 737, where they will be able to observe their lecturer flying with a series of challenges such as engine shutdown and restart, autopilot failure, aircraft pressurisation and emergency descent, and dealing with a cargo hold fire as well as a series of go-arounds on final approach.  This is so they can monitor the lecturer’s biometrics under the range of stressful situations and apply this to their projects on pilot fatigue and error.