Student Trip to Boeing

On April 16, 2010 members of the Engineering Student Club at Penn State Wilkes-Barre, accompanied by faculty members Dr. Jon Carson (club advisor) and Dr. Albert Lozano visited the Integrated Defense Systems facility from Boeing located in Ridley Park, PA. Boeing Integrated Defense Systems combines weapons and aircraft capabilities, intelligence, surveillance systems, communications architectures and extensive large-scale integration expertise.

After a brief introduction to Boeing and its rotorcraft division, as well as internship and employment opportunities, students were given a tour of the Wind Tunnel. This particular wind tunnel allows Boeing to test performance of aircraft up to 0.3 Mach. This is an important segment of the flight as it includes the critical phases of take off and landing. The wind tunnel is a closed-circuit tunnel, with a quarter of a mile air path containing 42 tons of air.

Afterwards, the students were taken to the Chinook assembly line. The Chinook CH-47D, first developed in 1967, is a multi-mission helicopter. It is tandem rotor, heavy-lift helicopter used by military forces around the globe. It can handle loads of up to 24,000 lbs. Its tandem rotor configuration provides exceptional handling qualities, allowing its operation in climatic, altitude and crosswind conditions that typically prevent other helicopters from flying. The students were able to see the different stations used in the manufacture of new Chinooks as well as the refurbishing of older units. This allowed students from mechanical and electrical engineering as well as other engineering disciplines, to see the different parts and processes used in a complete engineering process.