Student teams design, build and test small-sized gliders to maximize flight distance and an aerodynamic ratio, applying their knowledge of fluid dynamics to its role in flight. Students experience the entire engineering design process, from brainstorming to CAD (or by hand) drafting, including researching (physics of aerodynamics and glider components that take advantage of that science), creating materials lists, constructing, testing and evaluating—all within constraints (works with a launcher, budget limitation, maximizing flight distance to mass ratio), and concluding with a summary final report. Numerous handouts and rubrics are provided.

This first part of the course Introduction to Aerospace Engineering presents an overall picture of the aeronautics domain. This overview involves a number of different perspectives on the aerospace domain, and shows some basic principles of the most important concepts for flight. Then the basic aerodynamics are covered, followed by flight mechanics.Study GoalsHave an overview of the history of flightApply basic/constitutive principles of mechanics of fluids - a.o. Bernoulli.Apply control volume approachesExplain flow regimes (viscous/non-viscous; compressible/incompressible aerodynamics) and to estimate viscous and thermal effects Compute lift/drag of simple configurationsDescribe reference frames and derive general equations of motion for flight and orbital mechanicsApply equations of motion to determine aircraft performance in steady gliding, horizontal and climbing flightDerive aircraft performance diagram and flight envelope, in relation to aircraft morphology, lift-drag polar and engine performance

This course is an introduction to the consideration of technology as the outcome of particular technical, historical, cultural, and political efforts, especially in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries. Topics include industrialization of production and consumption, development of engineering professions, the emergence of management and its role in shaping technological forms, the technological construction of gender roles, and the relationship between humans and machines.

This activity sends students undercover to Dayton and Kitty Hawk to report secretly on the activities of two brothers who are making a big glider in their bicycle shop. Students prepare by researching aviation history and then, posing as news reporters, interview the brothers (and neighbors). Instructions are included for building the Wright brothers' gliders and first plane.

This lesson explores the drag force on airplanes. The students will be introduced to the concept of conservation of energy and how it relates to drag. Students will explore the relationship between drag and the shape, speed and size of an object.

In this lesson, students will study how propellers and jet turbines generate thrust. This lesson focuses on Isaac Newton's 3rd Law of Motion, which states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Have you ever wondered how important people get to where they are? National Naval Aviation Museum director, Captain Sterling Gilliam, shares his path in this segment brought to you by STEM in 30.

Astronaut Michael Good - Learn about the importance of teamwork in any job field in this episode of My Path.

Learn how Alex Blake, an Analysis and Test Engineer at Wing was inspired by one of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII and went on to become an engineer at Wing.

Perceive, prepare, perform and persevere. The lessons Col. Charles McGee learned as a Tuskegee Airman and applied to the rest of his life.

Walter Watson was the first and only African-American to qualify as a crewmember in the SR-71. Hear from this amazing aviator.

For all of the bodies attached to the many great minds that walk the Institute’s halls, in the work that goes on at MIT the body is present as an object of study, but is all but unrecognized as an important dimension of our intelligence and experience. Yet the body is the basis of our experience in the world; it is the very foundation on which cognitive intelligence is built. Using the MIT gymnastics gym as our laboratory, the Physical Intelligence activity will take an innovative, hands-on approach to explore the kinesthetic intelligence of the body as applicable to a wide range of disciplines. Via exercises, activities, readings and discussions designed to excavate our physical experience, we will not only develop balance, agility, flexibility and strength, but a deep appreciation for the inherent unity of mind and body that suggests physical intelligence as a powerful complement to cognitive intelligence.

In this episode of our "Pilot Pals" story time series, we share the story of pioneering African American aviator Cornelius Coffey.

STEM in 30 looks at the four animal groups that achieved flight and inspired humans to develop the ability to fly.

Students are introduced to the engineering challenges involved with interplanetary space travel. In particular, they learn about the gravity assist or "slingshot" maneuver often used by engineers to send spacecraft to the outer planets. Using magnets and ball bearings to simulate a planetary flyby, students investigate what factors influence the deflection angle of a gravity assist maneuver.

What does flying a paper airplane have to do with landing the Space Shuttle?

In this video segment adapted from NASA, learn how engineers are transforming the future of flight by designing airplanes based on principles found in nature. In the early 1900s, the Wright Brothers found inspiration for their first airplane in nature. Their "Flyer," which was modeled on a bird's flexible wing design, was steered and stabilized by pulleys and cables that twisted the wingtips. Despite its success, this control strategy quickly vanished from aviation. Instead, stiff wings capable of withstanding the greater forces associated with increased aircraft weights and flying speeds became the standard. In this video segment adapted from NASA, learn how designs found in nature have inspired today's aerospace engineers as they conceive the next-generation of flying machines. Grades 3-12.

The airplanes unit begins with a lesson on how airplanes create lift, which involves a discussion of air pressure and how wings use Bernoulli's principle to change air pressure. Next, students explore the other three forces acting on airplanes thrust, weight and drag. Following these lessons, students learn how airplanes are controlled and use paper airplanes to demonstrate these principles. The final lessons addresses societal and technological impacts that airplanes have had on our world. Students learn about different kinds of airplanes and then design and build their own balsa wood airplanes based on what they have learned.

What makes rockets fly straight? What makes rockets fly far? Why use water to make the rocket fly? Students are challenged to design and build rockets from two-liter plastic soda bottles that travel as far and straight as possible or stay aloft as long as possible. Guided by the steps of the engineering design process, students first watch a video that shows rocket launch failures and then participate in three teacher-led mini-activities with demos to explore key rocket design concepts: center of drag, center of mass, and momentum and impulse. Then the class tests four combinations of propellants (air, water) and center of mass (weight added fore or aft) to see how these variables affect rocket distance and hang time. From what they learn, student pairs create their own rockets from plastic bottles with cardboard fins and their choices of propellant and center of mass placement, which they test and refine before a culminating engineering field day competition. Teams design for maximum distance or hang time; adding a parachute is optional. Students learn that engineering failures during design and testing are just steps along the way to success.