Aircraft Design Laboratory

A fully equipped workspace is made available to Aerospace Engineering (AE) undergraduate students to work on their design projects as a part of their two-semester senior design sequence.

The Embry-Riddle AE capstone aircraft design is divided into two required courses. The first is Aircraft Preliminary Design, where the students design aircraft that satisfy practical multidisciplinary requirements. The second is Aircraft Detail Design, where the students work on sizing, manufacturing and reliability of structural components. The laboratory offers students an open and welcoming environment and a safe place to work. The room is equipped with workstations with design, finite element, simulation and programming software, allowing the students to design realistic airframes that comply with current Federal Aviation Regulations.

Modern numerical methods are mixed with traditional approaches, yielding a balanced and comprehensive understanding of aircraft design. Complete aircraft assembling and small components are available to aid students to deepen their understanding of the complex nature of aircraft materials, structures and mechanisms. The lab is also equipped with a flight simulator, where the students can check their stability and control equations developed in the Preliminary Design course, as well as two 3D printers, where the students can manufacture and visualize scaled modes of their Detailed Design Project.

Students in the aeronautics track occupy this lab during fall preliminary design and spring detail design of their last full year as undergraduates in the program. The space and tools enable hands-on experience in design of aircraft design, including the ancillary skills of reporting, management, financial analysis, technical specification, peer review and prototype fabrication.

In this lab, students are also given the guidance to enable them to complete their capstone design course by building components to meet the specifications of industry representatives from companies, such as Boeing and Gulfstream.

Equipment List

• 1 flight simulator
• 2 medium-sized 3D printers, for scaled model printing  
• 1 large format multifunction plotter printer 
• 26 high-powered workstations running industry-standard analysis and design programs, including CATIA, NASTRAN and a variety of supporting ERAU network applications