BiographyMy name is Louis Lentz, I am seventeen years old, and I have always been fascinated with flight. Since Middle School I have been designing, building, flying, crashing, and redesigning model planes on an increasingly complex scale. I started off with a simple 3-foot cub and have worked my way up to my most recent 6-foot A10 model.
Through my work with scale aircraft I have learned Bernoulli's principle, servo wiring, soldering techniques, basic structural engineering, turning tendencies, and more. Given my prior experience and ambitious attitude, I have now decided to go for something bigger (approximately twice the size of anything I have attempted before). My project is to create a 1/3 scale, functional piper warrior model using a variety of metal, plastic, wood, and foam materials to get my creation airborne. I will learn to design, build, test, and fly on an unprecedented level to explain aeronautical principles in a newer, deeper, and larger context. |
Project Description
Flight.
Have you ever stepped on a commercial airliner and wondered how two bendy wings, essentially slabs of metal, can suspend hundreds of passengers tens of thousands of feet above the ground? I know I certainly have, and it has me asking why!
I think the tricky part about understanding the mechanics of airplanes is that they’re not very intuitive. The process of flight involves a curved piece of metal spinning in such a way that displaces air molecules over another curved piece of metal which creates differences in pressure, which then, in turn, causes the movement of air to DEFY GRAVITY and push the plane UP (a direction humans are not very used to moving) without out ever having to bend a joint or flap a wing.
My project is all about taking the hypothetical concepts of aeronautical engineering and applying them to the real world. Not only theorizing about how a plane is pushed upwards, but also designing a plane that can actually fly and do it. Seeing something work on a smaller scale will not only help me explore my passion for aeronautics, but also help me utilize these physical principles most effectively and explain how they can be magnified to the professional level.
Have you ever stepped on a commercial airliner and wondered how two bendy wings, essentially slabs of metal, can suspend hundreds of passengers tens of thousands of feet above the ground? I know I certainly have, and it has me asking why!
I think the tricky part about understanding the mechanics of airplanes is that they’re not very intuitive. The process of flight involves a curved piece of metal spinning in such a way that displaces air molecules over another curved piece of metal which creates differences in pressure, which then, in turn, causes the movement of air to DEFY GRAVITY and push the plane UP (a direction humans are not very used to moving) without out ever having to bend a joint or flap a wing.
My project is all about taking the hypothetical concepts of aeronautical engineering and applying them to the real world. Not only theorizing about how a plane is pushed upwards, but also designing a plane that can actually fly and do it. Seeing something work on a smaller scale will not only help me explore my passion for aeronautics, but also help me utilize these physical principles most effectively and explain how they can be magnified to the professional level.
To see where I am in the project, click the
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"MY JOURNAL" tab or Button Below
The way I see it, you can either work for a living or you can fly airplanes. Me, I’d rather fly. — Len Morgan
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