This year’s 2023 Australian International Airshow at Avalon, Melbourne, was an opportunity for aerospace companies across the globe to demonstrate their capabilities to the Australian audience. As the first Avalon since the Covid-19 pandemic, the large turnout also afforded many other groups outside the defence sector the opportunity to connect with their respective audiences. One such group on display was the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Australian Division, which chose to focus particularly on its STEM outreach programme – Cool Aeronautics. As the name suggests, Cool Aeronautics focuses on a target audience of school students, with the goal of encouraging careers in aerospace, aviation and space.
Having set up a stand at the event’s ‘Tech Zone’, the Cool Aeronautics stall provided an opportunity for both students and parents to directly connect with industry, with12 volunteers supporting this initiative.
The volunteers, representing the diversity of aerospace careers, set out to engage students with a variety of activities which were designed to encourage active and critical thinking, with the aim of offering a glimpse into what various aerospace careers entail. Given the Avalon Airshow’s heavy focus on Australia’s emerging space and defence activity, Cool Aeronautics was well situated to explain what the future of aerospace might look like in Australia, thus helping both students and parents determine the necessary paths required to pursue a career in whatever interest was shown.
While such discussions were primarily held with high school students, the activities were engaged with students and children of all ages, from the production of paper helicopters to learning about certain aircraft flight instruments. The opportunity to design a basic aircraft on the stall’s virtual aircraft design activity was also well received, enabling students to see how certain disciplines connect together as an entire system to create an aircraft.
According to Olga Hansen, National Co-ordinator for Cool Aeronautics for the Australian Division, the “show and tell static display provided talking and learning points – it was especially fun to see children and adults alike engaging so positively with the artifacts,” adding that “our simple hands-on activities allowed children to see the real-life application of aerodynamics and the theory of flight, linking what they are learning at school to real-life applications.” While the stall gathered much attention in the Tech Zone, the display was only a snapshot of where Cool Aeronautics is headed.
“We are particularly focused on diversity, equity and inclusion with plans to take the Cool Aeronautics programme into regional areas, expanding our Girls Engineering the Skies programme nationally and continuing to provide a variety of STEM outreach engagement opportunities for our members throughout Australia,” Hansen said, explaining “we are also developing our space flight programme to incorporate rocketry and space sciences, and preparing to launch our interactive propulsion activity using a 3D printed gas turbine model.”
The show was also significant in being the first event attended by Emily Hughes FRAeS since being appointed the Australian Division’s first female President. Graduating from university with a Masters degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 2002, Hughes has garnered over 20 years of experience in the defence industry, demonstrating her expertise as the current Director at Boeing’s Phantom Works International.
As President, Hughes is passionate about connecting with and inspiring young people, noting that without such interaction, the curiosity and interest she had was pivotal in fuelling her own desire for a career in aerospace. “My inspiration started when I was around five years old when I became fascinated with space, and my interest grew from there. At the end of primary school, I was working on a project and chose space as the topic,” she said, adding “I wrote to NASA with some questions and I’ll never forget that they took the time to write back to me and even sent several factsheets. I still have that letter to this day.”
Under the leadership of Hughes, as well as the outreach of Cool Aeronautics, the curiosity of Australia’s next generation is sure to thrive, with passionate people and inspiring programmes set to ensure that whatever industry does next, the Australian Division will play a key role in promoting passion for aerospace.
13 July 2023
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02 8005 6525
info@aktengineering.com.au
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