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Student News
Enrollment management
services coordinator Migri
Prucz (right) has been
announcing the Pumpkin Drop
teams from atop the
Engineering Sciences Building
for 19 years. Professor Don
Lyons (not pictured) emcees
the event from the ground.
Building A Better
Helicopter
By Shainna Sticklen
With their ability to take off and land vertically from
almost anywhere and hover in place, helicopters are
widely used in for both civil and military flight
operations. Researchers in our Department of Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering are striving to make these rotary aircraft
safer and more efficient.
Gerald Angle, a doctoral student and research assistant in the
department, has been working on the circulation control
helicopter blade for about three years, along with his advisor,
James Smith, mechanical and aerospace engineering professor
and director of WVU’s Center for Industrial Research
Applications.
“One of the most complex and maintenance intensive systems
on a helicopter is the main rotor drive assembly and control
system,” said Angle. “The main rotor blades are controlled by
the swash plate, which alters the pitch of the main rotor blades
during flight. The swash plate connects to the blades at their
root and is controlled by the pilot to alter the aircraft’s pitch
and direction. The mechanical nature of these motions requires
constant inspection and maintenance, and also presents a major
flight safety issue if failure occurs during flight.”
Angle’s research involves applying circulation control
techniques to aerodynamically change the lift coefficient of the
rotor blade. The patent-pending concept involves blowing jets
of air through slots on the rotor blade’s surface to alter the
aerodynamic characteristics of the blade without physically
changing the pitch of the blade, which will ultimately lead to
the elimination of the swash plate.
Nineteenth
Pumpkin Drop
RAISES MONEY FOR CHARITY
More than 100 teams of elementary, high school, and
college students from all over the state competed in the
19th Morgantown Pumpkin in October. Participants
dropped their pumpkins, encased in packages they designed
with everything from bungee cords to toilet paper rolls, from
the 11-story Engineering Sciences Building. The team whose
pumpkin got closest to the target without bursting was
declared the winner. Wallace Venable, WVU emeritus associate
professor, measured distances.
This year’s winning teams were from Doddridge County; St.
Marys, West Virginia; and Suncrest Middle School.
Registration fees raised raised $1,200 for the Ronald
McDonald House in Morgantown, which provides lodging for
families of hospitalized children. The WVU chapter of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) sponsors
the event and a similar one held in Charleston as well.
“It’s always great to work with Ronald McDonald House,” said
ASME chapter president Jonathan Painter. “This event also
gives us an opportunity to work with young people, to show
them what our profession is all about, and to open their eyes
to another world.”
“We hope to get more lift out of a smaller rotor,” said Angle,
“which would mean that a helicopter could carry the same load
with a smaller landing area. One possible benefit, in addition to
enhanced safety and reduced maintenance, is that the military
might be able to park more helicopters on their ships.”
26
Spring 2007
Jonathan Painter (left), ASME chair, and John Brewer, ASME
vice chair (right) presented a check for $1,200 raised from the
Pumpkin Drop to Kim George (center) of the Ronald McDonald
House in Morgantown.