Aerospace Engineers Test Atmospheric Conditions for Aircraft Design

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Students in the 2009 Introduction to Aerospace Engineering launch the scientific balloon.Aerospace engineering students this weekend will launch a scientific balloon to an altitude far above the jet stream to study environmental factors that affect aircraft design.

Students in the introductory class will launch the 4-foot diameter balloon to an altitude of 100,000 feet — three times the cruising altitude of commercial airliners and the jet stream’s strongest winds — to collect and analyze its GPS position and atmospheric conditions such as pressure and temperature. That data will be transmitted from the balloon to two computers on the ground.

“The students are learning about the environment that aircraft fly through,” said Assistant Professor Jim Gregory. “That is essential in the aircraft design process. For example, how much lift the plane can generate versus its weight and how fast the aircraft can fly are dependent on what the pressure and temperature measurements are at a given altitude.”

The class, which also will learn about physical principles such as how buoyancy force and drag affect the ascent rate of the balloon, expects to launch the balloon Sunday afternoon from a farm near Plain City, northwest of Columbus.

“What we are doing is basically what the National Weather Service does at locations around the country two times every day,” Gregory explained. “They put this data into their models for forecasting.”

In addition to a weatherproof camera designed for adventurers and a consumer-grade video camera, the balloon is equipped with sensors to measure air pressure, altitude and temperature. The latex balloon will eventually burst due to the changes in atmospheric pressure and descend back down to the ground via parachute. Gregory will track it through its GPS readings to recover it after it lands.

Last year’s Introduction to Aerospace Engineering class launched the balloon near Marysville, Ohio. It reached more than 150 mph ground speed as it passed through high winds aloft and rose to an altitude of about 102,000 feet before bursting. Video from the camera showed clouds at high altitudes during the ascent, the curvature of the earth and the dark sky once it reached its maximum altitude. It traveled about 100 miles east and landed in a coal mining area near Newcomerstown, Ohio.

Watch a video showing last year’s launch and images taken from the cameras on board the balloon.

HOW HIGH WILL IT GO?
Altitude and height comparisons for the scientific balloon launch

 

  • 1,200,000 feet: average altitude of the International Space Station orbit

  • 246,062 - 328,083 feet: Meteors burn up in the atmosphere

  • 100,000 feet: expected altitude of aerospace engineering scientific balloon before bursting

  • 51,000 feet: maximum cruising altitude of Gulfstream’s new G650 business jet, now in flight-test phase

  • 30,000 feet: generally the strongest winds of the jet stream and cruising altitude of commercial jetliners

  • 29,028 feet (8,848 meters): snow height of Mt. Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, as agreed upon this spring by Nepal and China, whose borders it straddles

  • 2,717 feet: Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, which opened in January in Dubai

 


Contact: Assistant Professor Jim Gregory, gregory.234@osu.edu

 

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