The Study of Aviation

Simon Gunning

English III - Honors - Pd. 3

Mr. Piatak

February 23, 2017

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The study of aviation engineering blew up during World War I when airplanes became

more common and needed in order to win the war. The invention of using stunt planes during

World War I helped Americans defeated other forces and biplanes helped entertain the citizens

back home. Aviation engineering can help Americans clean the air by creating cleaner ways of

traveling by aircraft. New safety technology plays a big role in order for a person to enjoy their

flight and make sure that the passengers become satisfied with the new technology. Over the past

century, the study of aviation engineering has played a huge role in helping Americans overcome

the odds and win battles and wars, improve and maintain safe and efficient transportation, and

helping the world decrease the air pollution across the globe.

The study of aviation engineering started to blow up back in World War I when airplane

mechanics and pilots became essential in winning the war and defeating enemy forces. Around

this time for planes, many called this time the Golden Age of Flight. Some pilots used planes and

aerodynamic acrobatics to entertain the public during the time when our country got involved in

the war and the rest of the pilots became fighters. While America did improve many different

weapons back home, the biplane became one of the most useful pieces of technology in World

War I. Biplanes helped American forces succeed in the war thanks to their aerodynamic

structure at the time and use of weapons on board. The biplane became unreliable and soon got

replaced during the beginning of World War II and thus came the rise of the monoplane

occurred. Planes of the early 1920s suffered from two serious problems: a tendency to stall and

to go into a spin and crash. Stalls result when planes travel too slowly or when the
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angle of the wing compared to the airflow becomes too steep (Ehrenman). Lucky Lindy's Spirit

of St. Louis, a Ryan Aeronautics M-2 strut-braced monoplane, popularized the monoplane

configuration in America and marked the beginning of the end for the biplane, but the first

operational monoplane did not come out til the early 1930’s (Ehrenmann).

A Romanian engineer, Trajan Vuia, created the first mobile and successful monoplane

around the year of 1908 and flew it about 40 feet. The monoplane replaced the biplane due to the

fact that the monoplane used metal and aluminum to help it become sturdier. During the 1910’s

people did not trust the monoplane until the Ford trimotor came out and Americans started to

respect the idea even more. The public did not respect or trust the monoplane due to the fact that

the engine and the metal wings can turn into ice and break off from high altitude. The metal from

the wings attached to the main fuselage in order to make sure the pilot had complete control over

the plane (Ehrenmann). In order for the plane to takeoff, the pilot used all three of the engines on

board and during cruising altitudes it would turn off one or two engines in order to save gas. Non

retractable landing gears caused major problems during landing and takeoff.

Retractable landing gears first appeared on the Boeing monoplane model during the

1930’s. The trouble pilots faced with using non retractable landing gears caused them to have

trouble steering and taking off due to the fact that they interfered with the basic aerodynamics.

Retractable landing gears did weigh a lot more and cost more than your average landing gears to

make, so they did not become trusted by many. Pressurization at high altitudes became a huge
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issue during the rise of the monoplanes. The pressurized suit started to get more use during the

mid 1930s and B.F. Goodrich became the face behind the invention (Ehrenmann). A couple

years later pressurized airplanes started to occur and got put to use right after World War II

started in 1939. After World War II, aviation engineering rose at a steady pace and did not

experience any major changes until the early 1990s and 2000s.

Engineers in today's world focuses more on cleaner technology and safety in aircrafts

rather than improving the speed or turbulence of an aircraft. Traveling across the globe without

using a single drop of gas seemed impossible back in the day during the Golden age of flight.

The Aircraft by the name of Solar Impulse 2 uses no fuel to power and its first launch started

back in Abu Dhabi about 2 years ago (McCabe). SI2 runs on four battery powered engines that

mostly gets the power from the sun. The weightlessness of the plane helps the batteries to run

faster and make sure the plane moves as fast as it can. A Ford Expedition weighs more than the

Si2 and also Si2’s wingspan averages longer than an average commercial 747. Solar panels

attached to the top of the wings make the journey for Si2 much more cleaner and increases its

average cruising speed of 30mph to about 50mph.

The journey of Solar impulse 2 helped show the world the power of renewable energy

and how far and reliable it can get an aircraft from one place to another. Specialized pilots help

make this historical ride successful thanks to the training and conditioning they have to go

through due to long periods of sitting in a cockpit and piloting. Yoga and stretching becomes a

must for the pilots before starting their week long trips. The pilots have the chance to stretch

once for 15-20 min every day, but only when they the plane has reached cruising altitude and
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above less populated areas or Oceans (McCabe).

The new technologies that come out everyday can guide aviation engineers to rethink the

different ways to power an aircraft and to make sure the aircraft produces no carbon footprint. In

the past couple of years, the use of drones in everyday life has increased dramatically, but most

drone users become faced with many issues and safety problems with many citizens across the

country. The FFA recently put in regulations about flying different types of drones at certain

altitudes and airspace restrictions (Hartman and Bland). The piloting skills needed to control a

multi rotor drone, do not require any recent piloting experiences. Remote control helicopters

have become the most regulated aircraft due to the future threat one may pose and recent

accidents in the past.

One of the major problems facing aviation engineers in today's world is making sure

safety and cleanliness in every commercial aircraft. Engineers developed many ways to solve

this issue among aircrafts and one of them involves decreasing weight in the aircraft in order to

put in cleaner engines. Solar impulse 2 uses less power and can still run due to the fact that solar

impulse 2 does not have much weight on it compared to other aircrafts. Changing the glass to

polycarbonate helped the Si2 use non renewable energy to complete its mission (McCabe).

Polycarbonate does not only weigh less than normal glass it also helps the pilot see because of its

increase of protection from UV lights. Regularly used metals on aircrafts ,like aluminum, drag

the aircraft down and causes an increase in fuel usage. Polymer helps create the exterior of a

cleaner plane due to how lightweight and stronger the metal compares to aluminum (McCabe).

LED landing lights get added to the aircraft to save on power and reduce the amount of battery

usage.
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Before any new technology gets added, scientists must conduct experiments on the new

engine or technology (Davis). Conducting experiments help the scientists discover the official

outcome of using the new energy. Scientists test out the freezing point of the new fuel so the

liquid does not solidify during the flight (Barrett, Stephen). Aviation companies want the

scientists to do all kinds of specific tests on the fuel to ensure safety and that it releases no

pollution. Specific tests such as the toxicity, thermal stability, material compatibility, and

oxidation testing. Scientists create commercial sized planes in order to make sure the new biofuel

can get put to use in regularly commercialized air lines. Once the biofuel passes all the test

required to become a regularly used fuel it can start going into major airlines such as Delta or

United Airlines.

Algae based biofuels have recently undergone a lot of research because of the recent

discover that they give off 10 times more energy than other fuels but takes more time to make

and craft. Research for American technology usually undergoes testing at Boeing, Air Force

Bases, GE aviation, etc. Overall, the aviation industry wants to decrease carbon use about 15-

20% by the year 2020 (Barrett). U.S airlines try to use about 1 billion gallons of biofuel each

year to cut back on the fossil fuels they usually burn. Biofuel costs more because of the process it

takes in order to turn regular chemicals into fuel. Many aviation companies try to work with

biofuel companies in order to lower the price and get more fuels for cleaner and safer travel. At

this point in time, about 4% of planes in the world use biofuels for commercial use and

transporting different goods across the globe.

Factors such as safe traveling play big roles in the new advancements of aviation

engineering. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) helps with any civil aviation
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accident within the United States. The NTSB wants to improve safety of airport surface

operations, improve general aviation safety, and improve fire safety in transportation

(Hersman). Although the NTSB helps makes sure no airborne crashes occur, they also help out

with airport security on the surface. The NTSB can solve airbourne related issues and non-

airborne problems that happen on the ground such as runway collisions, confusion, or any

excursions. The NTSB records around 1,500 accidents per year since the last decade and about

97% turn into fatal accidents. In a survey on solar glare, 383 experienced pilots said that almost

all of them come in contact with a solar glare during a flight. Thirty- seven percent of the pilots

said that the solar glare in most flights come from glass buildings in which they have to fly over

and overcome in order to land. The rest of the pilots said oceans, roofs, windows, sunrises, and

sunsets increase the amount of solar glare that pilots see during their flight. Although solar flares

do not cause fatal accidents or plane crashes, they do cause the pilots to get off track and

distracts them from flying. According to the pilots in the survey, wearing sunglasses and a

baseball cap can prevent solar glare from coming into the pilot’s eyes. Altering the flight pattern

does work but it would increase the amount of flight time during the flight.

The last commercial airplane crash occurred on February 12, 2009 when flight 3407

crashed on approach to the Buffalo Niagara International Airport in Buffalo, New York

(Hersman). The crashing of the plane happened because of a pilot error and not a mechanical

issue. The plane crashed into a house last February and killed all 48 people on the plane and one

on the ground. Mechanical problems in airlines usually get traced back to the

hangar and crew that fixed the plane.

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Problem solving becomes the biggest skill when fixing planes or inspecting it for

different problems wrong with it. Performing a reliability analysis on a product or system can

actually include a number of different analyses to determine the reliability rate of the product or

system (Bugaj, Martin). In order to maintain the safety of an aircraft, a crew must analyze the

plane and find all the issues wrong with the plane. Fixing a plane can help save money on parts

because of the use of mechanical engineers fixing them instead of wasting money on new parts.

Collecting data of the problem from the aircraft as one goes along can help the worker or student

the next time they do something similar.

Thorough investigation and lots of time goes into finding the problems in order to make

sure all parts of the aircraft can safely work. Analysis of the failure happens after the searching

for the problem becomes complete. The crew analyzes the failure by making sure all crew

members know the problem and good problem solving skills go into play. Different and specific

kinds of failures cause direct effects on operating safety, and others failures affect the capability

of the specific equipment (Bugaj). The engineers run tests of the specific parts to decide if the

certain area can function well and properly. Four different conditions can cause an aircraft to not

function: cannot complete a simple function, poor performance within the function, functions

becoming able to over perform, and unintended functions are the four basic conditions an aircraft

can go through during a failure analysis.

Once the failure analysis becomes complete and the crew finds the problem, engineers

evaluate how the problem affects the aircraft and how major the issue can become (Bugaj).

Engineers ask many questions ask about the problem such as: What will happen when the failure
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occurs? What impact does the failure cause on the aircraft? What kind of environmental and

safety factors become damaged due to the failure? One of the final tasks involved in fixing a

problem within an aircraft becomes vital to the entire solution because of the hands on skills

needed. The use of guidelines and blueprints helps engineers fix the problem and ensures that the

specific area of the aircraft can function properly. Engineers who choose to go to college for

aviation run into these types of problems everyday on the job.

Many factors go into influencing a student that wants to go to a certain engineering

college. The University of Saint Louis conducted a survey to decide what the major factors and

choices would go into the student's decision. The love for flying as a little kid became a

dominant factor in the survey for choosing aviation engineering as a life career.This survey

would help improve certain problems with many different colleges for aviation engineering

across the entire globe (Steckel, Lercel, Matsuo). Students who majored in aviation engineering

decided to conduct research on new and on the rise students in aviation engineers to evaluate

why they chose the college they attended.

A survey in 1991 discovered that the top three reasons for picking a college include good

academic reputation in the field, graduates in who get good jobs, the amount of money one pays

in order to stay in the university, and the size of the university, too. Reputation plays a big role in

choosing a university too. The survey showed demographics on what kind of person goes into

the study of aviation engineering. A review of the demographics showed that the aviation science

student body consists of 92% male, 92% white, and 98% U.S. citizens (Steckel, Lercel, Matsuo).

This shows what types of people one expects to work with in a job of
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aviation engineering. People who go into the study of aviation want to get into piloting but, most

graduates get a job in the engineering field rather than piloting.

One might expect to do a lot of mathematics involved in the study of aviation

engineering. Required classes in college, such as basic algebra, can help a student become more

familiar with the work place before entering the real world. Mathematics helps the worker or

student with problem solving and how to fix and error on a specific aircraft. Problem solving in

the career becomes key when dealing with real life airlines that thousands of people ride

everyday. Aviation courses in high school prepares a future aviation engineer and prepares them

for education in college and the actual career. A high school in Pennsylvania recently put an

aviation program in their STEM research. Rather than an overview of how aircrafts work, or a

course on how to fly, the researchers instead attempted to provide a well-rounded approach to

instructing future aviation engineers and pilots in this area that represented a culmination of the

many facets of flight technology (Surra). The program helps students succeed in the study of

aviation by the use of basic teaching lessons and simulators that future pilots would use.

​The study of aviation continues to change occur the past century and the study helps our

world understand the importance of a safe and clean way of transportation. Since the Golden Age

of Aviation, major improvements in aviation engineering helped to improve the aircrafts of

today. The technology in today’s world allows many different people across the globe to help

lower pollution rates by creating cleaner sources of energy for commercial aircrafts. STEM

programs in high school can help students increase their knowledge of the study and prepare

them for a real career. Most studies done in aviation engineering revolve around making new
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aircrafts cleaner for the air and safer to fly.
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Works cited

Hartman, Chris, and Geoff Bland. "Aviation Practices For Safer Drone Flight: Understanding

And Mitigating The Risks. (Cover Story)." ​Technology & Engineering Teacher​ 76.2

(2016): 13-15. ​Academic Search Complete​. Web. 16 Dec. 2016.

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Hersman, Deborah A. O. "Is The Federal Aviation Administration Making Sufficient Progress

On Safety Initiatives?." ​Congressional Digest​ 92.6 (2013): 18. ​MasterFILE Complete​.

Web. 1 Jan. 2017.

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McCabe, Seabright. "Clean Technology Makes Aviation History." ​SWE Magazine​ 62.3 (2016):

36. ​Science Reference Center​. Web. 16 Dec. 2016.

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Ehrenman, Gayle. "The Golden Age of Flight: the quarter-century following World war I yielded

more engineering improvements than just about any other period in aviation history."

Mechanical Engineering-CIME​ 2003: 26. ​Academic OneFile​. Web. 1 Jan. 2017.

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