OW PRODUCT PROPOSAL AND CALENDAR 

 
DATE: ​March 5, 2019 
 
 
INTRODUCTION AND STATEMENT OF PURPOSE 
 
Aerospace Engineering involves a lot of technical science. The research that I did 
into this field during first semester explored into current projects taken on by the 
aerospace industry and hinted at its future. While most associate the industry to 
aircraft and spacecraft, there is a plethora of different engineering and 
computational work that go into creating the final product.  
 
For my original work, I’ve decided to focus on one aspect of engineering 
performed when building an aircraft: structural design. Understanding structural 
design will help me recognize how the aircraft works the way it does and allow 
me to implement my learning to design my own structures to accomplish similar 
feats. To shrink the scope of this idea, I’ve chosen the wings of a Cessna 172 to 
analyze the structure of and use as a reference to design and build my own wing 
structure.  
 
This is a project that I will be working on with guidance from my mentor. Apart 
from using this opportunity to learn how the wing structure enables an aircraft to 
fly, I will be learning from Mr. Marks about the process of analyzing a structure. I 
will also be working with a computer-aided design app called Inventor Autodesk 
which I hope to become more familiar with through this project since it is an 
application that I will be frequently working with in the future as an engineer. 
Autodesk will be used for both analyzing an existing structure as well as for 
creating my own original design. Through the second half of my project, I hope 
to gain more experience about the engineering design process to compliment my 
learning of the process of analyzation from the first half of it. This can then be 
something that I can carry with me into college where I will be encountering 
design challenges that I’ll need to implement an orderly approach on.   

 
REVIEW OF SKILLS AND RESEARCH:  
 
I intend to make the process of analysis and design my priority while working on 
my project. Practicing now with a systematic approach will benefit me by 
teaching me how to orderly accomplish any engineering project. While the 
engineering design process is something I am familiar with from past projects 
that I’ve done in my classes, I will still make it a point to research further into the 
steps so that I may more accurately implement it.  
 
As I embark on the analysis journey, I am sure that I will need to additionally 
research into certain engineering principles and analysis procedures in order to 
be able to use and conduct thoroughly. Some of the principles that I’ll be working 
with are geometric configuration, load distribution, shear-force distribution, and 
stress and strain applications. I will have to additionally research into more ways 
that I can analyze the C172 wing structure so as to make the first half of my 
project more detailed. 
 
Furthermore, being out of touch with using AutoCAD is going to require me to 
have to practice with the application before being able to successfully model 
with it. This also applies to 3D-Printing the model. Though I’ve done it before, I 
will have to review the process before being able to carry it out.  
  
MATERIALS:  
 
● Computer + Inventor Autodesk 
● AutoCAD model of Cessna 
172 wing structure  
● Notebook and pen to record 
process 
● Access to internet for research  
● Access to a 3D printer 
 
CALENDAR:  
 
Week One (Mar. 18-24) 
Verify Data + Calculations 
 
Week Two (Mar. 25-31) 
Geometric Design  
 
Week Three (Apr. 1-7) 
Geometric Design/Scaling  
 
Week Four (Apr. 8-14) 
FEA (inventor stress analysis - on top of 
calculations)