Summer 2002
Vol 2 Issue 3
Central Pennsylvania Section
Silvio Chianese, Chair sgc113@psu.edu
Robert Melton, Vice Chair rgmelton@psu.edu
Dave Stinebring, Treasurer drs4@wtl.psu.edu
Central PA Branch Starts New Year
The summer marks the beginning of a new year
for the Central Pennsylvania section of AIAA. This
year we look forward to getting more professional
members involved with AIAA activities. We hope the
newsletter and website will continue to allow the
section council to keep you posted on events so you
can participate. Feel free to submit any newsletter
article ideas to us. Use this as an avenue to
communicate with your fellow members!
http://www.psu.edu/dept/aerospace/aiaa/pro/
Vigor Yang, Technical Committee vqy@psu.edu
David Spencer, Public Policy Committee dbs9@psu.edu
Kathryn Fisher, Newsletter Committees kkf106@psu.edu
guests with his guitar playing and singing. Later in the
afternoon, a softball game was organized and the
students and professors played a few fun-filled innings.
The picnic is a growing success, drawing more guests
each year.
PSU Student Branch Completes
Successful Year
The Penn State student branch of AIAA has
finished a year filled with speakers, field trips and
social events. April brought several students to
Hampton, VA for the AIAA Region I MA annual
student conference. After a long trip, Penn State
students joined students from University of Maryland,
Old Dominion University, Virginia Tech, University of
Virginia, George Washington University, West
Virginia University and University of Delaware to
listen presentations of their peers’ research. The first
day also gave the students an opportunity to tour
NASA Langley research facilities as well as Old
Dominion’s full-scale wind tunnel testing facility. The
social hour that evening allowed Penn State students to
meet students and professors from other universities to
discuss research, job markets, and graduate programs
in a more relaxed atmosphere. Kathryn Fisher, the
student branch chair said, “Every year this is a great
experience for me. I hope to be able to present my
graduate research next year at the conference so this
gave me an opportunity to really see what it’s all about
before I am actually presenting my work. It’s
especially great that the professional branch helps
provide transportation making this trip an affordable
learning experience.”
The annual end of the year picnic drew a large
crowd of students, professors and their families. The
picnic, held at Sunset Park in April, was a potluck
barbeque. Mike Biedrycki, the social chair, manned
the grill while Dr. Mark Maughmer serenaded the
Dave Maniaci throws an airplane during the AIAA
picnic.
Finally, we’d like to wish best of luck to the
graduating seniors and encourage them to continue
their participation in AIAA in their local professional
branch. We’d also like and recognize the graduating
student officers and thank them for their work this
year: Kathryn Fisher, chairperson; Albert Koerner,
treasurer; and Michael Biedrycki, social chair.
Get Involved as a Section Officer!
The Central PA AIAA section has become
more active than ever recently. Motivated members
have published quarterly newsletters, developed a web
page, and started a new public policy focus within the
past year. Now, the section needs YOU to get
involved. There are several section officer positions
that are currently open. The section needs members to
serve as secretary, membership officer, education
officer, and honors and awards officer. Volunteering
with AIAA is a great way to get involved with the
local and national aerospace community. Contact the
section chair, Silvio Chianese, at sgc113@psu.edu to
get more information, and to get involved!
Thepvongs Earns Award at Student
Conference
Smith Thepvongs, a recent graduate of the Penn
State Aerospace Engineering Department, earned
second place in the undergraduate division of the
AIAA Region I MA Student Conference. Thepvongs
was the only student from Penn State presenting a
paper at the conference.
Smith Thepvongs receives his award during the
awards banquet.
Thepvongs started his research to fulfill a
requirement as a Schreyer Honors College student.
Finding an interest in both aerodynamics and
structures, he was directed by Dr. George Lesieutre to
a research project which involved a combination of the
two and emphasized design and testing. His interest in
this project led to many library hours researching the
topic and by the time the summer before his senior
year came along, he was ready to start working
independently.
His research addressed a key issue encountered by
rotorcraft in forward flight- unsteady asymmetric
aerodynamic loading of the main rotor. This problem
causes excessive vibration, noise and limits the
maximum forward flight speed. While previous
research focused on using conventional trailing edge
flaps, driven by smart materials-based actuators to
actively control blade aerodynamics at high frequency
while it rotated, Thepvongs’ project considered the use
of Gurney flaps. Gurney flaps are small, flat plates
that extend perpendicularly to the airfoil’s lower
surface at the trailing edge. The benefit of Gurney
flaps is that, due to their geometry, they can be
deployed using a very small force and are well suited
for smart-material based actuators.
More specifically, Thepvongs’ part in the project
was to develop and test a system to deploy the Gurney
flaps. His goal was to develop a system that could
achieve as good, or better, performance than
conventional active plain flap while using much
smaller and lighter actuators.
The final design
consisted of a custom built piezoelectric bender driving
the Gurney flap through a mechanical leverage system.
The results showed that the system operated closely to
his predictions and theoretically exceeded the
aerodynamic capability of the current active plain flap
systems.
Next year, Thepvongs will be attending University
of Michigan to pursue a Master’s Degree in Aerospace
Engineering. For his graduate research, he plans on a
topic similar to his undergraduate research, involving
active controls of helicopter rotor blades. Following
graduate school, Thepvongs would like to continue in a
career involving research, either in academia or
industry.
Thepvongs said of his AIAA student conference
experiences: “The AIAA student conference was an
incredible experience. It gave me the opportunity to
learn the process of writing and presenting a technical
paper in an environment I later discovered to be very
similar to other technical conferences. I was able to
meet students from other schools and learn about the
student research projects, which were very interesting.
Also, the tour of the Langley facility was fascinating.”