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Interactive Aircraft Structrues Website
Interactive features and animated graphics increase students' comprehensive level

	ME4212 Aircraft Sturctures, by Dr Lim Chwee Teck, Department of Mechanical Engineering, contains many sophisticated interactive features to demonstarte aircraft structures. Click and learn In the ‘Introduction to Aircraft Structure’, the subject is organised into five sections—history, anatomy, loads of aircraft, structural idealisation and materials.
Dr Lim Chwee Teck Dept of Mechanical Engineering Faculty of Engineering

Navigation on the site is fairly straightforward, even for a beginner.

Under the sub-topic of “Basic Aircraft Movement”, the lecturer may ‘click’ to demonstrate the three basic aircraft movements—pitching, rolling and yawing. The aircraft’s smooth movements are executed though Macromedia Flash.

The wings/vertical tail/horizontal tail/fuselage - four basic aircraft anatomy - is highlighted in red on the aircraft when mourse overr. The animation also helps to better illustrate how the various control surfaces on the wings and tail of aircraft are activated.

Another section where animation significantly improved teaching and learning is the three categories of loads that aircraft structures are required to withstand. Before this, Dr. Lim used to bring a model aircraft to the class to explain the ‘ground loads’ concept. This is where when an aircraft is landing, the reaction forces from the ground will act upwards on the wheels during contact. In the animated graphics on the site, the lecturer can better show how the ground load can act on the aircraft.

Another element that is better demonstrated via the Web is when zooming in on a particular structure of the airplane. Before this, the lecturer will teach with the help of transparencies. On the Web, students can see clearly the structural idealisation of the complex wing section.