District I
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont
Continuing with previous columns on educational outreach initiatives, the following report came from the Northern Connecticut RC Club (NCRCC) member, Lloyd Burnham, and takes us to the club’s college-level engagement.
Western New England University (WNEU) Professor Roger Blinn contacted the NCRCC and asked for a four-person team to aid with the construction and test-flying of three airplane designs as redesigned by the student engineers for his Fundamentals of Flight course.
The semester requirement was to take three existing low-wing airplanes and design new wings capable of carrying 3 pounds of additional weight and fly at 20 mph without stalling, as well as over 40 mph. A radar gun was used to measure the speed. The students involved were divided into three independent teams.
NCRCC members Irv Thurrott, Peter Tani, Ralph Rinaldi, and Lloyd Burnham volunteered to work with the students relative to the construction and safety of the models. Multiple visits were made to the college lab as construction progressed. The design efforts required lift, power, stability, and strength calculations along with center of gravity checks, radio installation, wing and stabilizer incidence, and other basic modeling and flight requirements in order to be judged acceptable.
At the end of the course semester, the three teams and the professor arrived at the club’s flying site where Ralph, the club’s expert pilot, checked out and confirmed the airworthiness and trim of each airplane. All of the airplanes passed the flight
test with an added 3 pounds of weight without stalling at 20 mph and had no problem flying over 40 mph.
This endeavor was a tremendous success for both WNEU and NCRCC. We were all proud to be part of this collaboration and look forward to the next class of aviation-minded student engineers.
Thanks, Lloyd, Irv, Peter, Ralph, and your club for contributing to the district’s worthwhile outreach activities to promote aeronautical STEAM education.
(L-R, back row): Ralph Rinaldi, Peter Tani, Lloyd Burnham, and Irv Thurrot. Professor Blinn is in the center of back row (gray sweatshirt). Others in the photo are the engineering students who participated on the three teams.
