McAtee attends NASA Langley Aeronautics Academy
 |
|
McAtee, right, with Dick Rutan, |
Collin McAtee, a junior in Auburn University’s Department of Aerospace Engineering, participated this summer in the first NASA Langley Aeronautics Academy. The 10 week academy at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., teaches leadership skills and teamwork while addressing real-world aeronautical problems. This summer’s class worked in teams to solve a problem presented by NASA’s Environmentally Responsible Aviation Group. Students were asked to design a cargo plane capable of carrying 100,000 pounds over distance of 6,500 miles that is cost efficient and environmentally friendly.
“Over the summer, our group worked independently on our design project with occasional direction from our mentor and adviser,” said McAtee. “We developed three design concepts, a truss-braced wing design, a hybrid wing body, and a three fuselage designs. Now, we are finishing a paper about our findings and will be submitting it to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.”
 |
| Aeronautics student scholars at NASA Langley with a B-52 |
The NASA Aeronautics Academy’s first class consisted of 10 students selected from more than 225 applicants from colleges across the United States. The students were given the opportunity to meet each week with leaders in aeronautics and tour important sights in the aerospace industry. Boeing facilities in Long Beach, Calif., and Huntington Beach, Calif., as well as NASA facilities at Dryden Flight Center, Scaled Composites in Mojave, Calif., and the Juno launch at Kennedy Space Center were among the highlights. The academy concluded with the design teams traveling to Washington D.C. to present their concepts to Jaiwon Shin, head of NASA Aeronautics.
