Thomas Fielding
MEng Aeronautical Engineering
Loughborough University
I went to Crickhowell High School, Powys, and then secured a place at Loughborough University on a 5-year course (4 in university, 1 year working in India) in Aeronautical Engineering. As part of my course I have had a number of interesting modules including Aerodynamics, Dynamics and Vibration, Thermodynamics, Computing (Matlab), Electrotechnology and Control Engineering.
Final group project
The group design project, by 10 students, was undertaken throughout the year and ended with a presentation to the Royal Aeronautical Society.
The project brief was to design an orbiting X-ray observatory from the initial requirements, through concept design and selection, design freeze stages and the final overall design.
The telescope needs to orbit around the sun-earth L2 point. The X-ray telescope is a grazing incidence telescope with a focal length of 25 m, modelled using a silicon pore optic mirror design.
Aircraft stability and flight test project
As part of my course we had the opportunity to go up in an aircraft to perform flight test and aerial manoeuvres used to certify an aircraft for operational flight. It was a lot of fun and educational at the same time.