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What do airplanes, helicopters, ships, and submarines have in common? If you guessed they’re all forms of transportation, you’d be right.
But there’s more. All these things are rigid objects that move through fluids, the focus of aerospace and marine engineering. (In engineering, a fluid can be a gas or a liquid.) Aerospace engineers are concerned with answering questions such as: What’s the best shape for a plane? How much fuel will it need to reach its destination? How do we design for a zero-gravity environment? Marine engineers — you guessed it — they’re concerned with travel on and in water.
▲ In 1903, Orville Wright took off in the first successful flight of a self-propelled aircraft. Before that day, the Wright brothers had to answer three questions: How should the airplane wings be constructed? What kind of engine was needed? How could the plane be balanced and steered? Answers came from studying the work of those who came before them and years of modeling, testing, and improving their own ideas.
▲ In 1933, the first modern commercial airplane was produced. The plane’s propellers sent streams of air over the wings, which had the effect of moving the plane forward. The passengers in propeller planes had to endure lots of noise and vibration during
a flight.
▲ To reduce noise and vibration, engineers developed the jet engine. In a jet engine, fans suck air into the engine, where it mixes with fuel. As the fuel burns, hot gases are forced out the back of the engine. Like a balloon that flies forward when air is let out the back, the hot air forced out the back of a jet engine causes the plane to move forward.
▲ If solar panels can be used to heat homes, why can’t they be used to power airplanes? Engineer André Borschberg asked and answered that question. Together with other engineers, Borschberg spent years testing and refining his solar-powered plane. Then, in 2016, Solar Impulse 2 completed a 26,000-mile trip around the world, using no fuel whatsoever.
Think Piece!
Think about how an airplane and a car are alike. Why might aerospace engineers be involved in the design of both?
JIM Suit
Newtsuit
Armored suit
▲ Marine engineers and others have worked for centuries constructing ways to explore the ocean – from diving suits to submarines. All the while, they’ve had to answer questions like these: How can we maintain safe oxygen levels? How can we keep people safe deep in the ocean, where water pressure is much greater than the air pressure on land? Some of the answers have paved the way to diving suits with breathing systems that last up to 48 hours and keep divers safe down to 1,000 feet. Other answers have led to nuclear-powered submarines that can go for 30 years without refueling. (The only limitation there is the food supply for the crew.)
Kids Discover talked with aerospace engineer Bridget Berry.
KD: What kinds of projects do you work on?
Berry: I’m on a team of engineers who design, build, and manage the monitoring of satellites after launch. One of my projects is a satellite that transmits information about location, timing, and position.
KD: What is the first thing you do when you start a new project?
Berry: I ask a lot of questions so I clearly understand the goal and the restrictions I have to work within.
KD: Can you share an anecdote about something unusual that happened on a project?
Berry: I remember once when we figured out a new way to use a satellite with broken parts to keep it from becoming space junk and also extend its life.
KD: What is something most people probably don’t know about your work?
Berry: Since we can’t visit a spacecraft once it’s launched, we’ve designed graphs to help us understand how it’s performing. During a complicated maneuver, all the engineers are staring at their computer screens to keep tabs on the satellite. It probably looks boring, but we’re all sitting on the edges of our seats, watching the data to make sure there aren’t any problems.
