PFR - Aerospace Engineering Sciences Senior Design Projects ...

Project Final Report – CUDBF April 30 th , 2009
ASEN 4028: Aerospace Senior Projects
15.0 Lessons Learned
Author: Shivali Bidaiah
15.1 Manufacturing Lessons Learned
Since most components were built without the use of a CNC, the importance of precision and
detail in the manufacturing process was a lesson learned among the team. The precision of
several parts also improved between the three aircraft that were built. Another useful lesson
learned was developing a naming convention when labeling SolidWorks files. Since several
SolidWorks files were used to determine the dimensions to build parts, it became apparent that
having a standard naming convention would make the process seamless, without requiring the
presence of other team members to obtain dimensions. A manufacturing checklist would have
kept the team up-to-date on the status of each component and it might have made the
manufacturing process more efficient. Another important lesson learned during manufacturing
was to improve knowledge redundancy across the team. For example, certain members
developed expertise in building specific components. If more than one member had this
expertise, it would have allowed for a more flexible schedule. Finally, a very important lesson
learned was to be prepared for the worst during the process which include but are not limited to
mishaps with gorilla glue, machining mistakes, and accidents.
15.2 Testing Lessons Learned
Since testing was a large part of assessing the system performance, the team learned that it is
very important to be prepared before every flight test. A flight test checklist was created to
ensure that all components were inspected before flying to avoid a crash. Another important
lesson learned during testing was that any problems that arose had to be fixed rather than
compensated for, and all assumptions and initial calculations that were performed needed to be
re-visited. The most important lesson learned in testing was that flight tests needed to happen
frequently because it allowed the team to assess the overall performance of the system. The test
schedule must have a buffer to account for unpredictable weather.
15.3 General Lessons Learned
The major lessons learned for the project overall were to have a better schedule, improve team
communication and to prepare for the worst. At the end of the project, there was a large
discrepancy between the actual and predicted timelines in the project schedule. In order to
prevent this in the future, it will be helpful to have a day-to-day schedule with each team
member’s task. This will help evaluate each team member’s performance and will also
demonstrate the work that each member is accountable for. It was also learned throughout this
project that many unexpected events occur in the project life-cycle and it is extremely difficult to
account for these events in an initial risk assessment. Therefore, it is always good to be prepared
for the worst so that unexpected events can be handled appropriately.
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