Undergraduate - UnitMAE1041 - Introduction to aerospace engineering

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Engineering
Organisational Unit	Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Offered	Not offered in 2015
Coordinator(s)	Prof H Blackburn

Synopsis

This unit will introduce students to the world of flight. It will give them an historical perspective on the evolution of aerospace vehicles and their design. The underpinning discipline areas of aerospace engineering flight mechanics; aerodynamics and propulsion, will be presented in simplified form and then integrated through the processes of analysis and design. Subsonic and supersonic aircraft and their differences will be examined. Students will gain an appreciation of the key aspects of aircraft performance and design.

Outcomes

To understand the evolution of aerospace vehicles and be able to articulate how this has resulted in modern aircraft.
To be able to differentiate between the engineering activities of design and analysis and understand their relationship in aerospace vehicle design.
To be able to calculate the basic relevant physical properties in different aerospace environments.
To gain a basic appreciation of fluid dynamics related to aircraft flight.
To understand the physical bases of and be able to differentiate between the different forces acting on aerospace vehicles, calculate their magnitude and direction and the balance between them.
To be able to perform basic calculations of the forces involved in different methods of propulsion, including propellers, jets and rockets.
To be able to outline the differences between low- and high-speed flight and nominate the basis of how the forces in each are calculated.
To understand the basic aspects of aircraft performance in steady and accelerated flight, takeoff and landing, and be able to numerically estimate anticipated aircraft performance.
To gain an appreciation of trade-offs made in a variety of example aircraft designs and to understand the roles played by the key physical quantities of thrust, weight and wing area in aircraft design.
To understand the basic aspects of aircraft longitudinal stability and control.

Assessment

Test and assignments 30%, Examination (3 hours) 70%

Workload requirements

3 hours lectures, 3 hours of problem solving classes/laboratory and 6 hours of private study per week

Chief examiner(s)

Professor Chris Davies