Aviation and Engineering?? I NEED IDEAS!! PLEASE HELP ME!?

Question

Hey guys,

Im an electrical engineering student at the moment, still in my first year, and i need to come up with an idea for a project by the end of next month which i must create during my second year.
I was hoping to relate this project with aviation but i am pretty lost. Do any of you have any ideas or experience? I will be carrying on to becoming a pilot when im done with this degree which is why i want to relate everything i do with aeronautics.
When i say project i mean something that i can build or program. Maybe a project to do with aeronautics and the environment?

I would really appreciate the help.

Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

congratulations on having your life planned out :)



you need to perhaps update with some more details, like project budget, whether it has to be electrical/computer related (or can even be a mechanical project), group or individual effort, etc.



my final year project when doing my diploma in aeronautical engineering was to design and build a vertical takeoff UAV. perhaps that is too technical for you, but you may think along those lines, as a UAV is pretty much the right size project. you'd also want to take on a project that will help you understand flying better, presumably with a remote controlled airplane.



some examples:

1) GPS navigation system (autonomous aircraft). will help you understand GPS tracking, aeroplane controls and how they are related (yawing will induce a bank, slip etc)

2) digital EICAS system for a dummy aircraft. where a small model aircraft can be tilted rotated etc and will feedback to a computer and the screen will output the pitch yaw bank etc.

3) automated pilot ground assistant. compute a program that will help pilots compute fuel requirements, takeoff/landing weight, waypoints, etc (this requires a fair bit of pilot knowledge though, might be a bit big a bite to chew off even though its just programming)



good luck :) i wish i had the funds to do projects :P

Answer 2

Aviation Project Ideas

Answer 3

I'm in my first year of Aviation Engineering soo maybe I could come up with ideas. My last proyect was coming up with a glass cockpit for a boeing 737.



I think you can create a small cockpit for a cessna. You can e.g link all the air pressure instruments with the air data computer. This instruments are the airspeed indicator, the altitude idicator and the vertical speed indicator.



By doing this you could explain how this systems interact with each other, which is very important.



Soo this could be a perfect project. If you decide to do something like this then mail me a copy of it =P



Good luck!

Answer 4

Pilots get hit with alot of audio and visual alarms. Colors and symbols, phrases etc. In normal day to day flying and during an emergency.



Maybe something along the lines what a pilot will have to go through during an emergency, alarms flashing lights people talking and the emergency at hand. What will he need to respond to first, what will his mind respond to and it what priority? Will he respond to a steady, flashing light, what color.



These are just ideas, I may be way off base, sorry if that the case.

Answer 5

Try electrical brakes. There are several large aircraft companies that are trying to make this work. Most of the negative input of electrical brakes is due to operator error.