Building a Jet Engine -- Hawken Project 2023

 On Wednesday, February 15, 2023, we met with Ian Charnas from Case Western Reserve University. At this point, our initial project plan had been denied as Mr. Adamczyk called Hawken and told them not to let us do the project. Therefore, we had to shift our project to make it safer for us to test. After talking with Mr. Charnas, we decided to submit a proposal to only build the compressor and turbine of a turbojet engine. Here is a copy of the notes from that meeting:  encoder - rotational speed of rotor maybe magnet on shaft then magnetic sensor to measure rpm reed switch andymark.com - electrical - encoder andymark.com - mechanical - motor arduino connected to electronic barometer to measure/record pressure - make graphs get a motor with rpm readout alternative ducted fan: rc foam ducted fan aircraft legality of rc aircraft rocketry - nar certification light curtains - industrial cnc/robotics safety controls - light curtain,  try to find motor with rpm sensor/ speed pres...

 Yesterday, we had our first meeting with Mr. Adamczyk to discuss our project. We expected to have a 30-minute discussion about what we wanted to accomplish and how we were planning to do it, but the phone call ended up last 1 hour and 45 minutes. Mr. Adamczyk asked us about our goals and why we were interested in doing this project, explained some physics and math about turbofan jet engines, expressed his concerns about safety, and nudged us into pursuing a project with a ducted fan rather than a turbofan or turbojet. His concerns around safety were due to the high temperature of burning jet fuel and the manufacturing capabilities necessary to produce balanced spinning parts. He gave us a lot to think about in the direction of our project and we will likely be meeting with him on a biweekly basis from now on. Here is a summary of the notes we took during the meeting:  The notes are about jet engines and their types, components, efficiency and history. Some topics covered are:...

(Writing about a week late) The Friday before last Ben and I went down to the Think[box] after school to look at some of the facilities and maybe get scheduled to do some training. Earlier that morning we had checked on the Think[box] website for training availability, but, despite opening that morning at 12am, they had been booked for the entire month. Mr. D gave us some contacts (Ainsley and Ian) to get in touch with when we arrived. We drove down, parked, and got surprisingly easy access to the facilities. Once we were inside we asked one of the lab techs whether Ainsley or Ian was available, and after waiting a while and exploring some of the available equipment, Ainsley came up to meet us. She told us that while she wasn't in charge of the training schedule for the 4th-floor equipment, she could show us who was. We went up to meet Misha Villanueva (who left early that day so we didn't see him), and eventually, we met Jason Bradshaw, who played a supervisory role on that fl...