XLAB International Science Camp

Welcome to all potential participants and interested readers!

Beginning in 2003, in 2009 the ISC took place for the seventh time, and each year also the course The Physics of Flying was offered by us. The capacity is twelve students, who split into four groups during the course. For the details of forthcoming camps you are referred to the XLAB website. We present here a quick overview of the one week of our course.

Please, see the note below concerning the course in 2008 and later.

"Us" - That's Wolfgang Send, theoretical physicist in the field of aerodynamics and structural mechanics at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) until October 2009. Contributing to modern concepts for teaching aerodynamics in several publications, he has developed the course within the recent years.
Felix Scharstein is a freelance precision mechanic living in Berlin. His chief business is technical and creative work for museums and exhibitions - and sometimes for the movie studios in and around Berlin. He is the designer and constructor of our test stand ANIPROP RL3. This unique tool is in the center of our course, which deals with the basic phenomena of flying. 

• The course - Competence and Knowledge

Knowledge. The course covers the basic phenomena of flying in nature and of the foundations of aeronautical sciences. The key subjects are

• the force balance of weight and lift and of drag and thrust, demonstrated by a wing model and by a model aeroplane,

• the mechanism of propulsion in animal flight, shown by an artificial bird of almost one meter span in tethered flight, and

• the notable flutter phenomenon of an airplane wing, in which - above a certain speed limit - power is extracted extremely fast from the surrounding air-stream, with the potential of destroying the airplane.

The course introduces to basic skills performing measurements in Aerodynamics. Among others, it is composed of exercises with the test stand ANIPROP RL3 and its components. During the last few years, a glossary was set out collecting a host of questions which were touched on. The XLAB_ISC_Glossary (0.8 MB) is kind of knowledge base for the next courses. Besides learning a few things about birds and planes, you will be challenged every day.

Competence. The course trains you

• to carry out various experiments with fluids (that's air and water),

• to deal with laboratory equipment like power supplies, oscilloscopes and electronic data acquisition,

• to evaluate acquired data and assess the results,

• to work out short presentations every day on new subjects and on your measurements and observations, and

• to give a presentation with a laptop or using flip charts: clear, concise and considerate to the audience.

The windtunnel ANIPROP KWK2.  Measurement of drag and lift.

Last, but not least: To have fun with each other! We are very much looking forward to guide you to the physics behind birds and planes. The Schedule of the Course 2004 gives you an impression of our "ambitious goals". Actually, it's you who sets the pace. The course CD, we compile at the end, is a nice memory of all the activities. The course, at that time, was organized by XLAB in co-operation with the DLR_School_Lab.

The schedule doesn't really change. Since 100 years of powered flight, aeronautical research still is faced with the same challenges: More lift, less weight, more thrust, less drag. It's the Highlight of the Year which sets up the priorities in a particular year:
 

Year	History, Highlight
2003	Excursion to a nearby reservoir, where thrust production with theTrampofoil was demonstrated by Felix Scharstein and brave participants.  This unique construction, developed by a Swedish team,  allows you to "ride on the water". Here is the movie - the amazing effect of a coupled bending/torsional motion.
2004	A full-size hang glider at hand. We practised running with the glider and experiencing the lift force.
2005	The radio-controlled artificial bird ESKALIBRI, developed by Kurt Saupe from Switzerland, demonstrated its outstanding flapping-flight ability. We revealed part of its secrets by observing it in our test stand ANIPROP RL3.  The movie Eskalibri in Göttingen is the Windows Media Video web version (*.wmv, 10 MB, 14:30 min) of a DVD remembering this unique event.
2006	Experiments related to the public lecture The da Vinci Vortex on the occasion of the forthcoming congress ISFV 12 were shown and discussed. The lecture was held by W. Send.
2007	No course due to very few participants announced - The Science Camp had been reorganized and split into two offers considering for varying summer holidays in the various countries.
2008	Note. The course 2008 takes place following a slightly modified concept. The new concept relies on longer periods of doing in-depth experimental work laid out for just a few students, except that the contents and the goals mentioned above remain basically unaltered.   The new location is the XLAB building close to the Physics department of the University of Göttingen. The experiments are supplemented with new tools: The well-tried test stand RL3 and a new experimental facility which recently was developed, the windtunnel KWK2 (sorry, both pages still in German only).
2009	Among others, we measured the electro-mechanical efficiency of an artifical bird. And we reached an ultimate goal: The mathematical description of "Where does the birds' thrust come from".To be honest, some participants had a hard time fighting with the formulas.
2010	The list of participants promises an exciting course with true international atmosphere: Australia, China, Croatia, Korea, Poland, Switzerland, Spain, Turkey and USA. First time ever no German students.