Facilities
The School of Engineering has a wide range of in-house facilities ranging from Computer Labs housing state-of-the-art PCs through to specialist equipment used almost exclusively by Aerospace students. Aerospace students also make extensive use of external facilities.Furthermore, teaching and research are supported by specialist facilities available in the research centres:
In-house Facilities
Engineering Flight Simulator
The Merlin MPX521 Engineering Flight Simulator at Swansea provides the highest degree of sophistication as compared to similar systems in other UK Universities. With its unique 3D visualisation capability combined with the latest software and rotary wing module it is second to none.
A short documentary about the flight simulator is available here.
Since its commissioning in October 2007 it has ‘clocked’ up more flying hours than any other, some of which have been operational for many years. This is attributed to the dedication from the School of Engineering and its teaching and technical support.
In this short period the flight simulator has already contributed significantly to the teaching and research on the Aerospace Scheme at Swansea University and has clearly drawn students from all disciplines. Once again this can only be attributed to the level of support that the school and its staff provide to the student body.
A team of Swansea Aerospace Masters student took for the first time part in the Royal Aeronautical Society and Merlin organised Aircraft Design and Handling Competition and winning the competition and being awarded the trophy, a special prize for the Best New Aircraft Design and hour-long flying lessons awarded by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. See here for more details.
Wind Tunnel
Horace the wind tunnel was designed in Swansea University in the early 60’s and has been sold all over the world. With installations ranging from The USA to New Zealand. It has a reasonably large working area and can realize wind speeds up to 28m/s which has benefited research projects ranging from Formula 1 racing teams to wind turbines for power generation. Ever since its installation it has made a vast contribution to the teaching programs and research projects for both graduate and undergraduate students. With its highly sophisticated balance arrangement it can be used to make incredible accurate lift and drag measurements. Throughout its life it has always been a considerable area of interest for all visitors and university members.
Jet Engine
The School houses a fully instrumented JetCat P120 engine that is used for teaching and for research projects, ranging from thermodynamic experiments to instrumentation and bio-fuel diversity.
External Facilities
For some parts of the aerospace engineering training strategic use of external facilities is made to complement what is done in-house:
Local Airports
Part of the study will take the students to one of the local airports where they will gain hands-on flying experience.
International Centre for Aerospace Training (ICAT)
Workshop training is done at the International Centre for Aerospace Training (ICAT) which is a facility for the EASA part 147 00.0020 approved training and EASA approved examinations. In this environment the students get the opportunity to obtain a taste of working in an aerospace engineering workshop and of real hands-on aircraft maintenance.
Cranfield Flying Lab
In the second year, students will take part in flying classroom lessons in a fully instrumented, twin turboprop Jetstream plane at Cranfield. This exercise is then followed up using the in-house flight simulator, giving the students the opportunity to understand flight mechanics and the very powerful link between ‘real’ flight and simulation.
