Aircraft performance and dynamics involve quite a bit of mathematics… but not only.
They are, after all, linked to the very visceral experience of flying.
In the Aerospace Dynamics course (LMECA2830), Philippe Chatelain, helped by his PhD student Philippe Billuart, have implemented “hands-on” sessions on a disassembled glider to get students acquainted very concretely with aircraft structure, instruments, aerodynamics, performance,…
After a theoretical seminar on gliding flight dynamics and performance flight, students are invited to this hands-on session for a tour of a modern high-performance glider in the aerodynamics lab and are offered an extra-curricular incentive to perform well at the final examination: the students with the best grades are offered a first glider flight at the Aero-Club Universitaire de Louvain based in Saint-Hubert in the beautiful Ardennes.
