Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology
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The Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands is the merger of two interrelated disciplines, aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Aeronautical engineering works specifically with aircraft or aeronautics. Astronautical engineering works specifically with spacecraft or astronautics. At the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, both of the fields are directly addressed along with expansion into fields such as earth observation and wind energy.
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[edit] Description
The Faculty is one of the largest of the eight faculties at TU Delft and one of the largest faculties devoted entirely to aerospace engineering in northern Europe. It is the only institute carrying out research and education directly related to aerospace engineering in the Netherlands. Through the years, the Faculty has responded to the increasing demands of the aerospace industry by further expanding its facilities and laboratories. Today the Faculty has a student body of approximately 1600 undergraduates and graduates, 142 members of academic staff and 91 PhD students. Around 20% of the student population is from outside the Netherlands.
[edit] Research
Current topics for research in the university are performance analysis systems for automobiles, hydrofoil ships, deep-diving vessels for oceanographic research, high-speed rail-type systems and several others. Currently sixteen research chairs are grouped under three major departments:
- Mechanics, Aerospace Structures and Materials
- Aerospace Design, Integration and Operations
- Earth Observation and Space Systems
[edit] Facilities
Extensive laboratory and testing facilities are used in research and teaching. The facilities include supersonic, hypersonic and subsonic wind-tunnels, a high-sensitivity navigation simulator, and a materials testing laboratory. These facilities make it possible to conduct experiments in man-machine factors, flight control, structures and materials, aerodynamics, simulation, motion and navigation. The faculty owns and makes use of Cessna Citation Jet aeroplane which is a unique flying laboratory. The Citation is used in research as well as in education. It's modular interior enables the possibility to change quickly between research missions and educational flights with students. "Simona" a flight simulator is one of the most amazing facilities at the faculty. It can be programmed to simulate any known aircraft, but also to mimic characteristics of a new design. The unique light design allows extreme realistic motion. The simulator is used for research, but is also the subject of some M.Sc. thesis projects.
[edit] National and international cooperation
The Faculty plays a significant role in national organisations such as the National Aerospace Laboratory, the Netherlands Agency for Aerospace Programmes and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research. Collaborations with numerous international and multinational industries through research groups abroad as well as in the Netherlands ensure that the Faculty remains at the forefront of the latest developments in the aerospace industry.The Faculty is a member of PEGASUS, the European network of prestigious aerospace universities. It also participates in exchanges of students and lecturers through the SOCRATES/ERASMUS programmes and agreements between several other partner universities. The faculty plays a major role in the IDEA League (Imperial College, Delft, ETH, Aachen institutes and universities).
