Carleton aerospace engineering students now have the opportunity to take to the skies and earn a pilot’s license as part of their degree and work with advanced simulator technology.
These enhancements are part of a new initiative between Carleton’s mechanical and aerospace engineering department, Ottawa Aviation Services (OAS) — a flight training and aircraft maintenance service — and B-Con Engineering, a local manufacturing firm specializing in optical systems.
The partnership adds 15 co-op placements at OAS for Carleton engineering students each year, according to a Carleton press release. Selected students will have the opportunity to earn a commercial or private pilot’s license and receive training in other areas of aviation, according to the press release.
Co-op placements at OAS for Carleton engineering students are already underway.
“It’s a chance for aerospace engineering students to actually get flight training, which is really handy because it gives you a context in terms of what you design,” said Joel Spark, a recent Carleton aerospace engineering graduate.
“Engineers make better pilots and pilots make better engineers,” he said. “You can always design a better aircraft if you’ve actually flown them before and know what they feel like.”
Spark said the partnership will also attract flight students at OAS to Carleton’s aerospace engineering program.
Cedric Paillard, co-owner of OAS, said while a pilot’s license is beneficial to engineering students, a degree in engineering is also an asset when applying for a job as a pilot.
OAS is also providing engineering students with a Diamond Katana, a light-weight composite plane that costs less to make and uses less fuel.
The Diamond Katana will be transformed by Carleton engineering students into a flight simulator that uses technology developed by B-Con Engineering, Paillard said.
As part of the partnership, a research program is being discussed that would investigate how to predict structural problems with composite aircrafts like the Diamond Katana, and find low-cost solutions to repair them, Paillard said.
B-Con Engineering is also providing projection technology for the Carleton University Simulation Project, which has been in the works since 2002, according to the press release.
The simulation project is one of the collaborative projects engineering students can sign up for in their fourth year of study, Spark said. Spark, who worked on the project in his final year, said it’s unique because the simulation platform, Atlas, is spherical rather than flat like other simulator technology.
B-Con Engineering will be providing optical technology that can project onto non-flat surfaces, such as the spherical cockpit used in Carleton’s simulation project, Spark said.
He said the coupling of these technologies will allow the simulation of events not possible with other simulators.
