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Aerospace students learn principles of rotorflight at Fleet Air Arm Museum

From UWE Bulletin February 2007

The Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, teamed up with the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton, on 24 November, to provide a Helicopter Day for third year Aerospace students who are studying aircraft propulsion. The aim of the day was to provide an initial understanding of the principles of rotorcraft flight.

A series of guest lectures were delivered during the day, including one by Tony English, Retired Senior Project Engineer, Composite Blades, ex-Westland Helicopters, who provided an introduction to helicopter flight. Tony was Project Manager for the design and development of the main rotor blade for the Sea King Helicopter, which has blades of over 10 metres long! Other lectures were provided by Alan Erwin, Aeromechanics Engineer, Westland Helicopters and Andy Ramage, also of Westland Helicopters.

Participating Aerospace students, working in teams, were asked to demonstrate how well they could put to good use the principles of helicopter flight by designing and building an auto rotation device with given materials. The devices were tested to see which ones stayed in the air the longest after being dropped from a height. Students Robert Stringer, Timothy Skinner and Andreas Grein won the UWE award for 'longest flight'. A second award was made by staff and volunteer engineers at the Museum to students Jesko Schmidt, Mark Bevan and Gregory Martin for the most admired approach to their design work.

The Helicopter Day was arranged by Dr Chris Toomer, who said, "This event, with its mix of activities, was a great success all round. The students were enthusiastic and involved and the industrial experts gave talks on state-of-the-art rotorcraft technology. The staff of the Fleet Air Arm Museum were most welcoming, very well organised and provided fascinating tours of the helicopter collections."

Helicopter Day - Aerospace Students pictured are Gregory Martin (left) and Chris Wolkensinger