INSPIRE Blog

By Langley Residential Interns, CA

From building airplanes to watching freeze-dried astronaut food remain unmelted on the sunny beaches of Santa Monica, we INSPIRE interns at Dryden have had a long, hard, and ecstatic week.  After a series of lectures on the fundamentals of flight, we had the task of building a supersonic aircraft out of Styrofoam and balsa wood. Although the sound barrier was not reached (partially due to the lack of airspace in the hallways), we were able to create some fine masterpieces. Our minds were racingwith aerodynamics, airfoils, and angle-of-attacks.

Lectures, afterwards, by NalinRatnayake and Chris Miller were particularly satisfying. Nalin's presentation on lift and drag explained the concepts of flight smoothly while Chris' powerpoint on forces and moments kept us engagingly in awe. By the end, we all had a firm grasp on the aeronautical principles needed for our experiment.

Afterwards, we were introduced to our Dryden Remote-Operated Integrated Drone (DROID), which we will be working on and with this summer. DROID is a two-cycle, single-prop, eight-foot long airplane that we will attach sensors to and create analytical models for.Moreover, Monday was spent learning more about our roles we will take and our objectives we will accomplish.

Hometown Buffet has been our number-one choice in late-night dinner and will remain so for the next seven weeks. How can one resist the all-you-can-eat nature of medium-rare steak, vanilla-swirl ice cream, and blueberry Icee? One night, we went bowling; there were the occasional strikes, spares, and gutters. Don did, however, get the opportunity to learn how to hook from a real bowling professional, as pictured.

On the weekend, we visited the Blackbird Airpark Museum and explored a variety of retired aircraft and missiles. There, we created our informative vodcasts on the numerous types of aircrafts there. We then took an hour-and-a-half ride west towards the beach and sunbathed in the California sun. The So-Cal-native Don taught the desert-born Allaina, Bryce, and Eric how to ride the waves with there bodies.Don't worry, we had plenty of SPF 70 to repel the harmful rays of the sun.

Tooooooo-daaa-luuuuuuuuu,

Sincerely,

The Dryden Residents