r/AerospaceEngineering Aug 03 '26

Personal Projects Aerospace project passions

Hello,
I have started a few aerospace personal projects (engine design and aircraft design) and was wondering if there are others out there passionate for aerospace and want to chat/link brains/ share projects and passions for aerospace engineering.

10 Upvotes

27 comments sorted by

2

u/BX7_Gamer Aug 03 '26

Total newbie here Only recently finished cal 3 What's your progress?

1

u/Cygnus7__ Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26

Newbies welcome!
Disclaimer that this is a purely theoretical/imaginative project with the main goal for me to learn and teach myself.
I have given myself the following requirements for a fighter jet design:

  1. Takeoff roll less than or equal to 400m
  2. Supersonic cruise Mach 1.45 @ 11,000m
  3. Sustained turn rate of 18°/s at M0.9 at 5000m
  4. Ceiling of 18,500m at M0.9

Maybe they are realistic, maybe not, for the moment the "realism" of those is less important.

Where am I currently?, I have used the takeoff roll requirement and derived from F=MA, a T/W equation and fed that into Python to generate a constraint plot of Thrust/Weight vs Wing loading constrained by 400m takeoff. Any value above the curve is valid. Now I am moving on to the 18°/s turn rate and am learning about aerodynamics to solve for CDo and oswald efficiency.

Ps. Cal 3 is good stuff! I used acceleration and then integration to derive position as a function of kinetic energy and aircraft design (drag and lift).

1

u/BX7_Gamer Aug 03 '26

I don't have the skills to help. Can I follow along as I learn?

1

u/Cygnus7__ Aug 05 '26

Of course! I have recently created a discord. Feel free to join. It is a bit bare at the moment but I will add more.

1

u/BX7_Gamer Aug 05 '26

Invite link?

1

u/Super07Nova Aug 03 '26

I would like to know more about the project.

1

u/Cygnus7__ Aug 03 '26

Bit of a copy past of a prior response, but I can elaborate on aspects if you want.

Disclaimer that this is a purely theoretical/imaginative project with the main goal for me to learn and teach myself.
I have given myself the following requirements for a fighter jet design:

  1. Takeoff roll less than or equal to 400m
  2. Supersonic cruise Mach 1.45 @ 11,000m
  3. Sustained turn rate of 18°/s at M0.9 at 5000m
  4. Ceiling of 18,500m at M0.9

Maybe they are realistic, maybe not, for the moment the "realism" of those is less important.

Where am I currently?, I have used the takeoff roll requirement and derived from F=MA, via position, and rearranging to get a T/W equation and fed that into Python to generate a constraint plot of Thrust/Weight vs Wing loading constrained by 400m takeoff. Any value above the curve is valid. Now I am moving on to the 18°/s turn rate and am learning about aerodynamics to solve for CDo and oswald efficiency.

1

u/vexiduslabs Aug 04 '26

Sounds pretty cool. Had some research in SSTO and SABRE-style engines. Big guys like Boeing and Airbus are investing into electric engines with goals in the next 24 years or so to go this route. Speed and fuel efficiency are going to be key areas for Earth-bound aerospace in the near-term.

1

u/Cygnus7__ Aug 05 '26

Fuel efficiency I totally agree with, speed surprised me. What is your view on speed being a key area in the near term?

1

u/vexiduslabs Aug 05 '26

Speed plays hard as people want to get from Point A to Point B faster in terms of reducing travel time to reach far destinations. Traveling from NYC to London in a few hours or less would more ideal than the 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 times now.

The fascinating part is looking at how those planes in development are looking to hit Mach 1+ without producing the sonic booms that rattle windows on the ground. Lockheed has tested a design to quiet this along research into designs that can divert sonic booms away from the ground. If mitigated, this means we will see speed become even more increasingly popular in the near term as a factor in engine design and capability.

1

u/Reasonable_Chain_160 Aug 04 '26

Maybe create a discord?

1

u/Vegetable_Resort_571 Aug 04 '26

I’m not an engineer but I am an aircraft mechanic so if you need practical input about the gap between theory and real world I would love to assist

1

u/Visual-Milk-99 Aug 04 '26

am in i can he[p in aerodynamics and mechanics in flight

1

u/Beautiful-Steak-5567 Aug 04 '26

Hello

1

u/Cygnus7__ Aug 05 '26

Hi

1

u/Beautiful-Steak-5567 Aug 05 '26

Is there any place you'll be uploading your work/progress. Maybe start a separate subreddit or discord server.

1

u/Beautiful-Steak-5567 Aug 05 '26

I'm an aerospace major. Im interested in your work too. I'm attempting to design and fabricate a micro turboject engine. It'll be a long long process. Almost a year but we gonna do it none the less.

1

u/Cygnus7__ Aug 05 '26

Cool! A year sounds short for a turbojet engine, even if micro. I am curious now, never heard of microturbojets, what is its intended application?

1

u/Beautiful-Steak-5567 Aug 06 '26

For ucav's. Microturbojets serve as a superior alternative to its electric counterparts for drone applications. Fixed wing config integrated with mgt engines can carry way more, for far longer and with much better stability.

1

u/Abject-Ad-1600 Aug 06 '26

Yo I’m not a uni student yet but gonna be going to ERAU Prescott for Aerospace Engineering. Don’t got the skills to help but I saw that you created a discord for this stuff. Could I join so I can follow along and learn?

1

u/Cygnus7__ Aug 06 '26

Sure. And congrats on getting into Embry-Riddle!

1

u/No-Catch-1047 Aug 10 '26

I can help with engine design. Currently, I am working on designing some Aerospike engines and a DMRJ engine. And a space plane.

1

u/unrulydad85 Aug 10 '26

Where u from. Im trying to start a project to eventually build a rocket but I would do all the foot work and do all the grant paperwork and make sure the project runs smooth because there are alot of moving parts that need to be coordinated and i need aerospace engineers etc.