Travelling to Delft by train, this morning we visited the local campus of the Dutch university InHolland. There, we had the chance to talk with the faculty of their Aeronautical Engineering department, the only one hosted at the Delft campus, and discuss the university’s program, the history of flight and aviation, and the mechanics that define a world of flying machines. Afterward we made our way to their warehouse, an onsite space for project testing and expos, we were able to build, test, and iterate on a foam board plane.

Alongside TU Delft, the Delft campus of InHolland centers its studies around applied sciences with a focus on Aeronautical Engineering. We began with a series of presentations, the highlight of which outlined the history, culture, and advancements in the field of aviation across the past 120 years. The inception of aviation was born out of the human desire to ‘fly like a bird’ and the images of freedom and grace associated with it. Then, as the practice evolved, the aim of innovation was to develop faster planes due to military demand in the twin world wars. As the world cooled into the 1950s the aim shifted to capacity to support the birth of commercial flights, and now we look to the future and strive to build more efficient and environmentally sustainable machines. Each era saw a new concept and worked tirelessly to meet that demand. When the limits of that idea were reached innovation slowed before the industry switched to pursue the next vision. At every stage new ideas within the field led to mass development to suit consumer’s wants and needs. With sustainability and environmental impact at the center of contemporary design, the students at InHolland are working on various related projects, such as the conversion of a traditionally fueled monoprop aircraft into an electrically propelled one, exploring the challenges therein such as flying range and battery weight in the aircraft. The ultimate goal of many of these electric-plane ventures, even outside of the university, is to eventually create a hydrogen-fueled plane which would not only have a much more plentiful source of fuel but also contribute zero emissions when burning the alternative fuel source. There are further challenges to hydrogen still, though, as the fuel tanks would have to be quite bulky to support the high-volume gas while relying on unconventional and currently underdeveloped electric motors opposed to more seasoned petroleum fueled engines.

The second half of the day revolved around a workshop where, assembled into teams, we each got to design, test, redesign, and fly model airplanes scrapped together from foam board, tape, and weights in the form of paper clips and washers. As an engineer I was in my element during the design process, repeatedly testing new mounting points for the weights, reinforcing the fuselage in different sections, and all the other steps required to get our little glider up and running. It was also refreshing to get hands on and down to work on a project with real time feedback in our design based off the various test runs, repairs, and alterations we continually made to the craft. For any flying machine (just like birds) the center of mass must rest at the 25% point from the front of the wings to maintain stability. It was an interesting challenge to modify and arrange the weights to get our balance just right, as well as working on different part alignment features to reduced turning or spinning off-axis. The end goal of this process was a competition between the teams based on the distance flown and path adherence of our gliders. This really placed us in the mindset of concept to customer, as the goals outlined by the student judges informed exactly how we would bring our ideas and concepts to fruition in the real world.

With our time in the Netherlands slowly coming to a point, tomorrow we are off to the flood management system of Deltaworks. We will not only get to experience the engineering behind the apparatus, but also the economic weight the project must navigate to remain a viable solution to water management in the Netherlands.

– Duncan Dockstader