This course extends fluid mechanic concepts from Unified Engineering to the aerodynamic performance of wings and bodies in sub/supersonic regimes. 16.100 generally has four components: subsonic potential flows, including source/vortex panel methods; viscous flows, including laminar and turbulent boundary layers; aerodynamics of airfoils and wings, including thin airfoil theory, lifting line theory, and panel method/interacting boundary layer methods; and supersonic and hypersonic airfoil theory. Course material varies each year depending upon the focus of the design problem.

This undergraduate course builds upon the dynamics content of Unified Engineering, a sophomore course taught in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT. Vector kinematics are applied to translation and rotation of rigid bodies. Newtonian and Lagrangian methods are used to formulate and solve equations of motion. Additional numerical methods are presented for solving rigid body dynamics problems. Examples and problems describe applications to aircraft flight dynamics and spacecraft attitude dynamics.

Explore the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Can you find the animal names of our aircraft?

Student teams design, build and test small-sized gliders to maximize flight distance and an aerodynamic ratio, applying their knowledge of fluid dynamics to its role in flight. Students experience the entire engineering design process, from brainstorming to CAD (or by hand) drafting, including researching (physics of aerodynamics and glider components that take advantage of that science), creating materials lists, constructing, testing and evaluating—all within constraints (works with a launcher, budget limitation, maximizing flight distance to mass ratio), and concluding with a summary final report. Numerous handouts and rubrics are provided.

This first part of the course Introduction to Aerospace Engineering presents an overall picture of the aeronautics domain. This overview involves a number of different perspectives on the aerospace domain, and shows some basic principles of the most important concepts for flight. Then the basic aerodynamics are covered, followed by flight mechanics.Study GoalsHave an overview of the history of flightApply basic/constitutive principles of mechanics of fluids - a.o. Bernoulli.Apply control volume approachesExplain flow regimes (viscous/non-viscous; compressible/incompressible aerodynamics) and to estimate viscous and thermal effects Compute lift/drag of simple configurationsDescribe reference frames and derive general equations of motion for flight and orbital mechanicsApply equations of motion to determine aircraft performance in steady gliding, horizontal and climbing flightDerive aircraft performance diagram and flight envelope, in relation to aircraft morphology, lift-drag polar and engine performance

Join STEM in 30 as we trace the family tree of the airplane from that first flight on December 17, 1903, to today.

The airplanes unit begins with a lesson on how airplanes create lift, which involves a discussion of air pressure and how wings use Bernoulli's principle to change air pressure. Next, students explore the other three forces acting on airplanes thrust, weight and drag. Following these lessons, students learn how airplanes are controlled and use paper airplanes to demonstrate these principles. The final lessons addresses societal and technological impacts that airplanes have had on our world. Students learn about different kinds of airplanes and then design and build their own balsa wood airplanes based on what they have learned.