Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology

About: Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology is a education organization based out in New York, New York, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Gravitational microlensing & Planetary system. The organization has 727 authors who have published 708 publications receiving 14082 citations. The organization is also known as: College of Aeronautics.

A terrestrial planet in a ~1-AU orbit around one member of a ∼15-AU binary

Abstract: Using gravitational microlensing, we detected a cold terrestrial planet orbiting one member of a binary star system. The planet has low mass (twice Earth’s) and lies projected at ~0.8 astronomical units (AU) from its host star, about the distance between Earth and the Sun. However, the planet’s temperature is much lower,

A methodology for modelling manufacturing costs at conceptual design

Abstract: This paper describes a method for modelling costs throughout the design phase of a product's life-cycle, from conceptual to detail design. The timely provision of cost data facilitates the quantitative evaluation of designs through a cost function. This approach to design evaluation has the advantages of allowing management to make more accurate bid estimates, encouraging designers to design to cost and reducing the amount of design rework, hence reducing the product's time to market and controlling product cost. The cost modelling strategy adopted incorporates the use of knowledge-based and case-based approaches. Cost estimation is automated by linking design knowledge, required for predicting design features from incomplete design descriptions, to production knowledge. The link between the two knowledge paradigms is achieved through the blackboard framework of problem solving, which incorporates both case-based and rule-based reasoning. The method described is aimed at innovative design activity.

The use of wing tip sails to reduce vortex drag

Abstract: Windtunnel measurements of the flow around the tip tanks of a model of a Morane-Soulnier Paris aircraft have been used to design cambered and twisted auxiliary surfaces, each only 0.4% to 0.6% of the wing area, which unwound the tip vortices formed at incidence and in so doing experienced a thrust, effectively reducing the vortex drag. Flight tests on a Paris aircraft showed that three such sails per tip tank increased the effective aspect ratio of the wing by over 40%. The increase in the overall lift-drag ratio at a lift coefficient of 0.35 was 21% and the maximum lift-drag ratio increased from 12.5 to 15.8. More recent windtunnel tests have shown that sails have a similar effect when fitted to plain wing tips. The results suggest that three or four sails spiralled round the rear half of each wing tip will give best results. These encouraging results suggest that far more windtunnel, flight and design work should be done to realise the potential savings in drag and fuel. Starting in 1946 as the College of Aeronautics, the Cranfield Institute of Technology was granted university status in 1969. In 1993 it changed its name to Cranfield University.