On February 10, 2020, the VFS San Francisco Bay Area Chapter and Aeromechanics Branch at NASA Ames Research Center had the pleasure of hosting a senior from Eastside College Preparatory School. The student had the opportunity to speak to several engineers in various stages of their careers and learn about on-going projects in the branch focusing on Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and Mars Rotorcraft research. The student spoke to engineers about the controls requirements, passenger acceptability, and testing performed in the support of the UAM community at Ames and visited the RAPTOR wind tunnel and Vertical Motion Simulator. The student also had the opportunity to discuss his upcoming college career with the Branch’s interns who in turn shared about their work: creating a gust generator for the RAPTOR wind tunnel, structural analysis for next generation Mars rotorcraft concepts, a descent study using autorotation for high altitude science sites on Mars, and adapting a turbulence model for UAM simulators. The local chapter of the Vertical Flight Society provided lunch for the student during which a board member joined him. The student was very enthusiastic during his visit and asked very insightful questions, and concluded the day with the declaration “I’ll definitely be back!”.
