Air delivery of supplies to areas where there's no place to land is typically done by parachute or helicopter. A parachute is reusable, but requires a trained rigger, periodic inspection, occasional repairs, controlled storage conditions and, of course, some way to return it to base after the drop. In dire battlefield conditions, used parachute components must at least be made unavailable to the enemy. In jungle areas, parachutes tend to leave the cargo hanging in the trees. Helicopters are expensive to operate, impossible to hide, make for high-risk operations behind enemy lines and can't land in the jungle without a prepared site.
Chase Warren and his teammates at DropMaster Inc. have a better idea: an economical, single-use delivery system that's compact, simple to rig and has the rectangular shipping container with all of the parts inside transforming into the hexagonal drop box! A small drogue chute with a metering line orients the package in free-fall and then deploys the deceleration system — three rotor blades that spin with the cargo (no bearings) at about 450 rpm and create lift to control the descent rate. It penetrates tree cover without a hitch and you can even use the parts as a camp stove to cook those fresh groceries!
Almost every automaker has had to 'pick a side' when it comes to alternative fuel options and ways to divest from a reliance on gasoline. Fiat is looking to back compressed natural gas or liquid propane as an interim solution.
Designing and filling a new type of water bottle might take less engineering work, but the description will help kids understand how science, math, and engineering influence their lives even through things that seem mundane.
Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
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