16.00 Intro to Aerospace Design
Spring 2009
Instructors: Jeffrey A Hoffman, Paul H Bauer
TAs: Damon C Henry, Pranay Sinha
Lecture: TR9.30-11 (32-144)
Announcements
Portfolios Ready for Pick-up (and a final note)
Dear 16.00 Students,Your portfolios have been read (with pleasure) and are ready for pickup in 37-219. I will keep them available until the start of 16.00 S10.
I have really enjoyed this year’s class. You all really got into the projects, and from your comments had a lot of fun, while learning new skills. And the skills were not just technical – they were team building and leadership experiences for many of you, and also, from your comments, have led to some real friendships.
I hope some of you who go on to Unified and do well in it will consider applying to be the junior TA for 16.00 S11. I’m going to try to keep the senior/junior model going if possible. I’ll put out a general call, but those of you who have taken 16.00 have priority.
I want to make one technical comment. Some of you suggested that having the single monolithic balloon did not allow as much creativity as having multiple balloons. We certainly noticed that the vertical behavior was more stable, and in a sense easier to control, once you learned how. The metric is that all teams this year completed the vertical slalom, which has never happened before. With two balloons, tied on separately you have much freer pitch, since the balloons can bob up and down. These monolithic vehicles are easier to control, and more stable. Remember what we learned about trading rapid maneuverability for stability. I think that is what we have done, and I think I’ll keep the monoliths for a while to see how much creativity students can apply to use them. With more stable vehicles, we should be able to get greater forward speed, which should be fun. Any suggestions any of you have for ways to make this as interesting as possible a development please let me know.
Well, that’s it. 16.00 S09 signing off.
Announced on 20 May 2009 12:11 p.m. by Jeffrey A Hoffman
LTA electronics check-in / pictures
Hello all,
As mentioned at the beginning of the LTA project, you are expected to return the electronic components you checked out. Please do so at your earliest convenience starting Friday at noon, and before the end of finals week. In order to best accomodate everyone, I will provide you with two options for the return time. Firstly, I will be around on Friday from 5-6pm in the hangar to collect items. If this does not work for you, please utilize option B, ie, send me an e-mail with some times that do work, and I will make myself available at a mutually workable time. I will, of course, appreciate it if teams opting for the second method can agree upon times that work for as many of them as possible.
The other thing that Damon and I would very much appreciate is if you could get us photographs that you have taken during the course of the term. Just bring your computer along when you come to return stuff and I can transfer them with a flash drive, or post them to your public folder or whatever method works best for you.
I believe I speak for both Damon and me when I say that it has been an absolute pleasure being involved with the class this term. We hope you had a good time and learned something useful from the class and your experiences, and wish you the very best for your future endeavors. As always, if you feel we can be of any assistance of any kind to you, please don't hesitate to contact us. ( damonh@mit.edu ; pranaysinha@alum.mit.edu )
-Pranay.
Announced on 13 May 2009 11:30 p.m. by Pranay Sinha
16.00 Final Portfolios
Here is a reminder on what should be included in your final portfolio. There is no reason not to get full credit for this.3 Problem Sets + comments and insight (no change from interim portfolios unless you want to add some comments)
Accident Report + Comments and Insights
Aerodynamic Decelerator and Model Rocket Projects + comments and
insight
(again, no change from interim portfolios)
LTA PDR
LTA CDR
Test Flight Report
LTA Final Report + Comments and Insights
Any general comments on 16.00 will be appreciated
Organization and Presentation: The portfolio should be in some sort of a notebook. Loose pages in a folder are not acceptable. Include a table of contents and a way of easily locating items, either page numbers or a good system of tabs.
Remember - this is something you should be able to present with pride to an interviewer for a future job.
Bring your portfolios to class on Thursday. I will send out a
note when they are ready to be picked up in my office. I will keep
them in my office in the fall for those of you who aren't still
here to pick them up this spring.
Announced on 12 May 2009 4:22 p.m. by Jeffrey A Hoffman
LTA Final Reports
Here are some more guidelines to help you with your final reports:Each team can submit a unified report, but, as I have
continually asked you to do, please indicate who contributed what
parts of the report.
The report should start where your CDR left off. All subsequent
design decisions should be documented. The final design should be
part of your final report, even if it has not changed since the
CDR.
You should report how your LTA performed, what problems you
encountered, any changes made, etc.
You should include a write-up of the results of race day.
Photographs are encouraged but not required.
Announced on 12 May 2009 4:20 p.m. by Jeffrey A Hoffman
Race Results
Here are the times for each team, in the order flown. Presumably you can remember who piloted which flight.Dardanos: 2:32 1:58 2:39 2:37 1:54
300: 1:50 3:05
Sweet 16: 2:00 3:20 2:00 2:37 2:38 3:27
Excelsior: 1:53 2:21 2:49 2:17
Southern Thunder: 2:02 2:12 1:55 1:33 1:35 2:07
Destoyers: 2:44 2:16 2:45 2:10 1:59 1:58 2:06
Congratulations to everyone for an excellent race day. We had more completed laps this year than in any previous year (which is why our batteries were dead by the end of the morning!)
Announced on 12 May 2009 4:12 p.m. by Jeffrey A Hoffman
