Cal Poly students build an airplane

Beneath the walls of an aging hangar structure on campus, aerospace engineering students are hard at work building an airplane.

In spring quarter 2007, they came to the Research and Development Center (Building 4) on Monday nights between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. to do a combination of mini-projects as well as work on the plane.

Aerospace engineering professor Daniel Biezad is in charge of this student-funded program. The plane that the class is building is an RV-7, a fully acrobatic two-seater aircraft.

Biezad said that the materials of the RV-7 came from the Oregon-based company Van’s Aircraft. It weighs about 2,500 pounds and could reach forces up to 7 Gs in flight, which could leave the pilot with uncomfortable side effects.

“That means you could get blacked out doing it,” Biezad commented. “You can do loops and rolls, and it would be fully acrobatic.”

The course, known as AERO 572 or “Aircraft Manufacturing and Fabrication,” first became available to students in 2003. Students learn that many of the concepts applied to this small plane also work in commercial jets.

“The same technology exists in larger aircraft put together by a company like Boeing or Lockheed Martin,” Biezad said. “So they learn on a smaller, more affordable scale on how large aircraft works.”

However, there are strict guidelines that aerospace students must follow if they want to help build the plane. They must use their skills and expertise to pass two projects that involves a “training kit” provided by Van’s Aircraft.

Even building the plane, a final project for most students, has a tough set of rules.

“You have to get an A in this class,” Biezad warned. “If you don’t get an A, then you get an F. You can’t have a mediocre piece that’s on a flyable craft. It has to be airworthy or it’s not airworthy.”

Biezad noted that aerospace engineering students use this laboratory course for course credit, special credit, or even a senior project. He mentioned that two students used the construction as part of their graduate thesis.

The program received its start thanks to student support of the project. They decided to take an increase in student fees back in 2003 to keep this unique opportunity open to them and to pay for the $50,000 plane.

The Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) of the aerospace engineering department and the local chapters of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Inc. all endorsed the work students contribute to the aircraft.

Aerospace engineering seniors Shane Wallace and Ryan Malherbe helped Biezad tell students how to build the plane right the first time through mini-projects.

“We’re going to start building the plane as soon as the students finish their projects,” Wallace said. “We’ll start working on the fuel tanks and wings (soon).”

If everything goes according to schedule, Biezad could take the RV-7 on its maiden flight in two years.

However, Malherbe stated that Wallace and he do not actually work on the plane themselves. That job is left to the students currently enrolled in the class.

“Before I came to Cal Poly, my dad and I were actually working on an aircraft when I found out that they had a program here,” Malherbe said. “So I took the class, and then…I was kind of handed into the project because I had built almost all of one (plane).”

Wallace said he went to the hangar every Monday night this quarter from 6 to 9 p.m. to help teach the class with Biezad. Behind the sounds of conversation, buzz saws, and other industrial noise, he felt like he was playing a part in getting the plane built.

“When I heard about the project, I had so much interest in working on the actual plane,” Wallace said. “I wanted to make something happen with it. I thought the managerial part would complement the design.”

Wallace and Malherbe thought that if they both worked on the plane as a team, the plane would be ready to fly in two years. However, there were other obstacles that have currently grounded the plane.

“It’s a lot harder when you add more than two people,” Malherbe explained. “You think it would get easier, but it actually gets harder.”

Even with that challenge, Wallace saw the benefits of having a class dedicated to constructing a genuine flying machine.

“I think it’s good for the students who are actually in the classroom because they get an understanding of how an airplane is built and how things will be done when they go on to their job at Boeing or whatever,” Wallace said.

Both agreed that the practical part of their curriculum is what makes their courses challenging. Even other students seemed to agree on that point.

“I basically got into it because it was a great opportunity to get a hands-on experience with actual tools and learning how planes are put together,” said aerospace engineering sophomore Brian Borra. “I figured it would be great to apply what I’m learning.”

Mechanical engineering senior Tae Gyun Gwon thought that his experience in his class will help him later in life.

“I always wanted to get involved for a long time,” Gwon said. “I also really like airplanes.”

Biezad mentioned that only a handful of colleges offer similar chances for those in the aerospace engineering field. These colleges include Penn State and the University of Sydney.

“You’d have to go long and far to find another college that has the skills and the capacity to put one together,” Biezad said.