Aerospace engineering is the primary branch of engineering concerned with the research, design, development, construction, and testing of aircraft and spacecraft.
Questions tagged [aerospace-engineering]
280 questions
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How to make smoke for a small wind tunnel?
I am making a small (desktop) wind tunnel for educational purposes, I want to have 10 fairly thick smoke-streams about 3cm apart. I have experimented with incense but the stream is not thick enough and barely visible.
I was thinking of using a pipe…
jhabbott
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What is the difference between aeronautical and aerospace engineering?
Every time I search for "aeronautical engineering" on Google I see a few results about aerospace engineering. So they must be similar, but what is different about these careers?
Ethan
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How hot does a rocket nose cone get during launch?
More specifically, I'd like to know if unmanned rockets need to be specially designed to withstand the heat generated from air friction and shock waves during launch. I found the diagram below on the NASA website which shows some fairly high…
Carlton
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Calculating real or more accurate specific impulse
This may fall a little under chemistry processes but I felt it has enough pertaining to aerospace to put it here. Basically, I'm in the process of attempting to develop a way to derive $I_{sp}$ as pertaining to rocket engines rather than rely on…
ecfedele
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Could a Fuel Breathing Engine Rather Than an Oxidizer Breathing Engine Work?
Here on Earth, the atmosphere is ideal for jet engines which combust a fuel using the native oxygen as an oxidizer. On another planet, might it make sense to carry oxidizer in the fuel tanks and scoop the fuel from the air (assuming the planet…
Rafael
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Do all supersonic airliners have a high angle of attack when landing?
The Concorde had a famously high angle of attack (and pitch angle) when landing. This led to its famous droop nose:
The Concorde's Russia counterpart, the Tupolev Tu-144, had the same issue.
These are the only two supersonic airliners to have been…
HDE 226868
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Are there any specific plans for the other parts of the 747s scavenged to make the Stratolaunch carrier aircraft?
I'm not sure quite how many people are familiar with the Stratolaunch project, so I'll give a quick summary.
Paul Allen and Burt Rutan (of Scale Composites) teamed up a few years ago to create a rocket that would be air-launched from an airplane -…
HDE 226868
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How can I mould a foam-core'ed carbon fibre shape?
I am trying to figure out the best way to mould/ create a closed shape (It is a 500mm long quadcopter arm) that has a foam core, and a rigid good quality carbon fibre outer.
Oh and to add to the fun, I need a hole through the center of the foam…
Digital Lightcraft
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Smallest possible rocket to get to LEO?
I was wondering what is the smallest possible rocket to get to LEO. I know that rocket fuel accounts for 90% the total mass of the rocket. Lets say I have 500g of payload and my rocket is made from an aluminium shell. How much fuel would I need to…
jack
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What is the smallest eccentricity achieved by an artificial satellite?
As you may know, as eccentricity gets smaller, the location of apoapsis/periapsis becomes less well-defined. Rather equivalently, I've noticed that if eccentricity is < 4e-7 when converting from Keplerian elements to Cartesian and back again,…
GPS Pilot
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UAV 5-Channel Multispectral camera vs. modified RGB camera that resolves NIR
Looking into purchasing a drone. One has a dedicated 5-channel multispectral camera (Micasense RedEdge) the other has a modified Sony RGB camera that resolves the NIR spectrum. Can someone sum up the pros and cons of each of the above systems?
Can…
Corto Maltese
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Can you change an asteroid's albedo to take it off a collision course?
The amount of light that an object reflects is called its albedo; a scale of 0-1, 0 being a black body ad 1 reflecting all light. This question is probably going to be closed [It is "subjective" ?? No idea how] so I may as well be brief.
In the…
Snack_Food_Termite
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Aircraft force in g's experienced by pilot
Given:
The acceleration of high-speed aircraft is sometimes expressed in g’s (in multiples of the standard acceleration of gravity). Determine the upward force, in $N$, that a $70\cdot kg$ man would experience in an aircraft whose acceleration is…
Jules Manson
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Can Voyager 1 or 2, theoretically, return to earth if given instructions before their electronic instruments shut down in 2025?
According to the NASA Website, the Voyager probes will begin powering down electrical components soon with all electronic functions ceasing some time around 2025.
With no ability to transmit back to earth and thus of 0 value in the Interstellar…
Venture2099
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How can I go about learning aerospace/space engineering Pre-College?
I am 16 years old and have grown a real interest in engineering and just rockets in general, I am unsure of how I can start learning about it though. I am obviously not yet eligible for college but I don't just wanna sit around waiting till then to…
Xplore
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