Session Number 3159

Modernizing a Legacy Wind Tunnel:

Hanging Onto and Letting Go of the Past
Thomas Hannigan, Keith Koenig, Bryan Gassaway, Viva Austin
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Mississippi State University

Abstract

A medium-scale, closed-circuit subsonic wind tunnel facility used for undergraduate

aerospace engineering laboratory experimentation and research represents a substantial
investment in resources. The control systems and data acquisition systems must evolve so
that the age of the facility does not prejudice researchers serious about their academic
endeavors. The evolution of such a system is detailed, including plant development,
improvement and modernization of its systems, and data acquisition and control systems
(DACS) programming. Individual student research projects that contributed to the
continued evolution of the facility are described, and the usefulness of maintaining such a
facility as a training tool in dealing with legacy systems is discussed. Through five
distinct iterations of programming environments and hardware exchanges, some integral
components have remained untouched through years of refinement, due to their robust
initial design and continued reliable service. Recognition of system limitations and
capabilities is essential to successful upgrade of systems such as these. The
implementation of a user-friendly interface for control of the wind tunnel and selection of
various data acquisition options is detailed, and the development of the current LabVIEW
program is discussed. The importance of being able to re-equip and reprogram DACS
instrumentation and presentation is presented as being essential in maintaining a positive
image of the research laboratory.

The Early Tunnel

Research facilities and undergraduate teaching laboratories are a necessary part of any
aerospace engineering programs physical infrastructure. Academic faculty members are
encouraged to continue research in their primary interest areas, and indeed such research
is a requirement for those at research institutions. Large-scale laboratory systems such as
wind tunnels are not simply static facilities. A medium-scale, closed-circuit subsonic
wind tunnel facility used for undergraduate aerospace engineering laboratory
experimentation and research represents a substantial investment in resources. The
laboratory building housing a wind tunnel is often constructed around such a facility, and
support facilities are sized and located accordingly. The facility housed in Patterson Hall
at Mississippi State University (MSU) was moved into the building upon completion of
construction in the 1960s. Wood and machine shop facilities were located adjacent to
the tunnel to provide research and educational support. The tunnel has an octagonal
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Exposition Copyright 2004, American Society for Engineering Education”
cross section throughout its closed loop wooden structure, except for the plane of the
propeller, where it is tapered to be circular. The four-bladed, variable pitch propeller is
nine feet(~2.75 meters) in diameter, and is driven by a 75 horsepower(56kW), 3-phase
electric motor at 1200 rpm.

The pitch of the propeller

blades is controlled by a
4096:1 geared 24V DC
motor in the propeller hub
operated through a set of
slip rings with electric
brushes.
As shown in Figure 1, the
layout of the tunnel is
rectangular, with faired
corners equipped with
carefully designed turning
vanes. The outer
diameter tapers through a
six-feet (2 meter) long
convergent section of
10:1 ratio, to the octagonal
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Figure 1: Wind Tunnel Plan View and Test Section

“Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference &
Exposition Copyright 2004, American Society for Engineering Education”
test section which measures 3’ high by 4’ wide by 5’ long(.9 by 1.2 by 1.5 meters).
Downstream of the test section the tunnel expands at approximately 4 degrees
divergence, over a total length of more than 50
feet(15.2 meters). The test section is limited to 160
feet per second(~50 meters per second) maximum
velocity for continuous operation, due to current
demands of the electric drive motor at higher speeds.
The tunnel has been operated to 200 feet per second
(~60 meters per second) for short durations. A
photograph of the view downstream through the test
section is shown at Figure 2. A 1:25 scale aircraft
model is mounted on the vertical support shaft, or
sting, which is connected to the external balance
which is in the housing beneath the test section as
shown in Figure 2. Note the turning vanes
downstream of the diverging section of the tunnel.

In his 1984 thesis,1 Iles discusses the wind tunnel

facility in depth, including the control system used
when the tunnel was automated in the 1980s. The
manual starting lever was operated with electrically Figure 2: View Downstream
activated pneumatic relays controlling pressure to a
piston that moved the lever to the start and run positions. The lever was held in the run
position by an electromagnetic relay, and was spring loaded to the stop position upon
release of that relay. The first of a series of computer controllers was a Hewlett Packard
single line computer, communicating through a Hewlett Packard Interface Bus to a
switching unit that multiplexed various data acquisition channels to a digital multimeter.
Data storage via an 8 inch floppy drive was accomplished via a Hewlett Packard Interface
Link, a two-wire serial connection. Immediate analysis was affected by using strip-chart
recorders to record analog data, and hard-paper plots were produced by an HP plotter.
All through the 1980s the use of multiple computers for data acquisition and analysis was
pursued through a series of
projects, as new platforms
emerged and the university
participated in various educational
programs that provided Apple and
IBM compatible computers.
Electrical engineering and
aerospace engineering senior
seminar projects and master’s
thesis projects concentrated on
developing and applying data
acquisition and control methods to
current topics.
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Figure 3: Tunnel Test Section Access Port

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Exposition Copyright 2004, American Society for Engineering Education”
Access to the test section is gained through an access door that opens to provide complete
freedom to work on models in that area. The power supply banks at left are for the
transducers in the 6-component force balance housed beneath the test section. Models
are connected to the external balance through the sting as shown in Figure 3.

The tunnel has been used for many such projects over the past four decades, including
studies associated with aircraft development at the Raspet Flight Research Laboratory.
Boundary layer studies, flow across cavities, flow around various shapes including
cylinders and ogive bodies, as well as detailed studies of flow over various land and air
vehicles have been documented through the years in a steady stream of masters theses
and individual senior seminar project reports. Successful lift and drag studies have been
conducted on items as diverse as sports balls, architectural models, home ventilation
components, and grape vine sections. Laboratory experiments conducted in the tunnel
have been a staple of undergraduate education, including boundary layer flow on flat
plates, pressure distribution around airfoil sections, stability derivative analysis of flight
models, and flow studies around various geometric shapes. Models studied by students
for individual projects have included airfoils, remotely controlled aircraft, vehicles, and
flying toys. Methods used for recording pertinent experimental data have evolved over
the years from manually recording or photographing indicators to strip-chart recorders
and analog recorders, to digital sampling and recording capabilities. During the 1980s
refinements and the adoption of standards in digital communications technology led to
the selection of an HP Vectra, IBM compatible computer using the General Purpose
Interface Bus (GPIB, formerly HPIB), as the basis for the first full-screen computer
controller for the tunnel. All of the software previously developed for the single-line
computers was immediately executable on this new system. Nearly every component of
the systems originally used had been replaced or upgraded several times in getting to this
configuration. This tunnel, its digital control systems and programs were inherited by a
new generation of laboratory staff upon retirement of a group of long-time faculty and
laboratory staff in 1990. A legacy of continuing efforts to improve upon the facility was
thus passed on to engineers immersed in a decade of rapid progress into the current
computer age.

Tunnel Development

Particularly during the past decade, as digital technology and the personal computer
became ubiquitous in the laboratory setting, the control of the tunnel was completely
automated and data acquisition systems were combined with or controlled through
computer programs. Since all new faculty candidates and many prospective students and
their families often toured the laboratory facilities as part of their departmental
orientation, it became increasingly important to insure that the wind tunnels presented an
up-to-date image of the research being conducted. The control systems and data
acquisition systems had to evolve so that the age or appearance of the facility did not
prejudice researchers serious about their academic endeavors. Students and their families
also needed to be favorably impressed with the undergraduate student research efforts
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being conducted. Since many high school students associate aeronautical studies with

“Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference &
Exposition Copyright 2004, American Society for Engineering Education”
the design and testing of airplanes, they were keenly interested in the wind tunnel
facilities from their first campus visit. This subsonic tunnel has thus been a point of
focus in the undergraduate laboratories, and a concerted effort has been made to keep its
systems up-to-date. The first twenty years of use of the tunnel saw the transition from
manual control and rudimentary methods of acquiring data to using the first control units
and computers. This progress was steady and continuous, and followed the state-of-the-
art in the development of the first effective digital control system based on an IBM
compatible computer. Evolutionary efforts continued to bring this legacy wind tunnel
system into the present age.

There was no quantum leap in the progress from that first complete digital system to the
present, and in fact that progress developed through at least five distinct stages. First, an
HP Vectra computer, which ran the HP Basic environment upon startup, and provided
control through its GPIB interface, was replaced by a fully IBM compatible PC. That PC
contained a measurement co-processor board within it that allowed the HP Basic
environment to run on independent hardware. Secondly, other data acquisition
equipment rapidly became available in standardized formats and various interface bus
varieties, and high speed data collection and analysis became possible. With the next
generation of computer, data could be collected from two independent systems within a
single computer, and streamed to disk for storage at very high rates. This allowed study
of non-steady flow conditions and recording of real-time data for off-line detailed
analysis. The Intel processor speeds were doubling and redoubling their speeds, with
similar advances in digital recording hardware, and the relatively slow GPIB was
eclipsed by direct memory addressing and high-speed data streaming over the newer bus
architectures. In this third phase, two separate computers were typically used, with one
providing control of the tunnel itself, and another for recording of high speed data from
more capable ISA bus data acquisition cards. The first generation measurement
coprocessor board was rapidly supplanted by even more capable derivatives, and the
ability of communicating between the main processor and the coprocessor board allowed
the recombination of DACS programming from two or more computers into a single
platform. The leap into the Pentium age and graphical programming environments led to
the next stage, and the development of a Testpoint program that used an IEEE 488.2
interface card to communicate to those instruments formerly addressed via the GPIB on
the measurement coprocessor card, and high speed data acquisition via boards plugged
into the ISA bus. When the engineering college adopted a computer initiative that
included a site license for LabVIEW, this led to the fifth major software and hardware
revisions. This included the development of ever more user-friendly LabVIEW program
interfaces, and easier programming within LabVIEW with a switch to National
Instruments DACS cards using the PCI bus.

The wind tunnel primary startup and velocity control subroutines have remained virtually
unchanged since their first development in a study of the initial digital control system
with transport and time delay. Those subroutines have been translated into newer
programming versions and graphical programming environments, but with the exception
of refinement of characteristic time constants of the system response, little substantive
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changes have been made to the original algorithms. The switches contained in the HP

“Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference &
Exposition Copyright 2004, American Society for Engineering Education”
3495A, multiplexing unit have continued to operate flawlessly for over 20 years. They
have been controlled by programs running on HP 75 portable computers with commands
translated from an HPIL link to the HPIB interface of the DAC unit. Similarly, the actual
hardware switches used for startup have been operated with HP 3421A data acquisition
and control units via and HPIL interface. With the implementation of an HP 9835B
single-line computer with an HPIB interface, the 3495A unit was hardwired into a
configuration that has remain virtually unchanged for two decades. These systems were
not only used for control of the subsonic tunnel, but also for control of two separate
supersonic tunnels, and many projects that were initially aimed at one or the other of the
subsonic or supersonic tunnels ended up in changes to the programming used for each. In
addition to using an HP 3455A DMM to measure voltages on various channels, a digital
pressure scanning system, the Pressure Systems Inc., DPT 6400, was added to the system.
This programmable device itself went through several stages of upgrades to its separate
PC internal interface. This scanner system was programmed through the GPIB with a
standardized set of commands, and communicated data streams to the PC on demand.
Although the wind tunnel and its control system referred to here as a legacy was not
actually an original being handed down, but rather a work in progress at any moment in
time, there was a distinct sense of having a complete system after the addition of the
pressure scanning system to the original Vectra-HPIB-based system.

The ability to scan 32 or 64 channels of pressure data simultaneously allowed the use of
wake rakes to collect downstream flow fields from objects in the tunnel test section, as
well as the collection of axial or other distributions of pressure taps. Thus the system
was useful in conducting flow studies including flow around airfoils as well as other
diverse objects. Known discrepancies with finite data sampling of pressure flow fields
such as the movement of the stagnation and peak pressures associated with airfoil
pressure distribution led to the development of programs for data smoothing. The advent
of easily programmed full-screen graphics allowed for on-screen study of data, and led to
graphical interaction with data sets for a more effective flow analysis. Faculty and
graduate students spent a great deal of time developing a series of subroutines that could
be integrated into programs used in the undergraduate lab for data analysis, curve-fitting,
and plotting, both on-screen and with pen plotters. Those efforts eventually led to the
development of terminate-but-stay-resident (TSR) programs for data analysis,
rudimentary background high-speed data acquisition and plotting, to avoid the problems
associated with integrating hundreds of lines of repetitive coding into programs the
students used in laboratory exercises. All of those efforts were supplanted by the
integration of high-speed data acquisition and fundamental signal processing functions
built into the newer graphical programming environments. The communication with the
pressure scanning systems improved dramatically with the advent of the internet age, and
the ethernet communications protocol. The latest PSI system capabilities included a very
easy interface to DACS programs through a complete library of standard graphical
programming modules for LabVIEW.

A six-component external force balance system was developed concurrently with the
development of the initial data acquisition and control systems, and this strain-gage based
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force balance provided very good resolution of forces and moments for study of many

“Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference &
Exposition Copyright 2004, American Society for Engineering Education”
wind tunnel models. That system has only required a periodic recalibration and
adjustment to provide reliable experimental data through years of conducting classic
experiments with semi-steady state conditions. Due to the low speed of the original
measurement system, the load cells of the original balance are often monitored through
the use of high speed DACS cards to capture transient or non-steady state phenomena
that heretofore were unavailable. Detailed analysis of vibration modes of the balance
itself became possible, and critical velocities or frequencies of operating models could be
determined. Prior to these studies, several experiments had gone awry and equipment
was damaged beyond repair, for example, when oscillations of the balance sting at a
fundamental frequency led to excitation of propeller whorl and failure of a propeller
shaft. Such phenomena could not even be observed with the naked eye until the failure
mode was initiated.

Faculty who were directing individual student research projects were primarily
responsible for the steady improvement and modernization of the wind tunnel. The
continuing development of analysis programming tools, coupled with the refinement of
hardware, required a forward-looking attitude in leading individual student researchers to
accomplish tasks in a timely manner. The laboratory coordinator regularly met with
other faculty members to identify projects suitable for special topic, senior seminar, or
master’s thesis assignments. This development of a project list was effective at insuring
that a number of students received real-world exposure to the problems associated with
interfacing new equipment, extending capabilities of equipment already in place, and the
modernization of a legacy system. This illustrated an important overall objective of the
engineering curriculum, that of impressing the students that there is a need for lifelong
learning. This point was easily illustrated by simply detailing the changes that were
necessary to keep this facility evolving, so that its usefulness would be maintained. In
fact, maintaining such a facility as a training tool in dealing with legacy systems is, in and
of itself desirable. Actually assisting in the development of programs to interface new
equipment for a large tunnel, or translating the entire DACS program into a new
environment are tasks that parallel those assigned to capable experimental engineers.
The accomplishment of such tasks during the undergraduate and graduate educational
experience must surely produce
engineers motivated to assume
such responsibilities once they
graduate.

Through five distinct iterations

of programming environments
and hardware exchanges, some
integral components have
remained untouched through
years of refinement, due to their
robust initial design and
continued reliable service.
Figure 4: HP 3455A DMM/9535B Multiplexer
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Exposition Copyright 2004, American Society for Engineering Education”
The HP 9535 switching unit (Figure 4) and all of the electromagnetic relays associated
with the startup/shutdown of the tunnel, and control of the propeller pitch for setting
velocity are still operated through the same HPIB, albeit now classified as an IEEE488.2
interface. A series of interface boards were purchased at one point to operate the tunnel
through a PCIP interface, including modules for scanning, multiplexing and oscilloscope
functions. Before programming was complete for those systems, a switch to a graphical
programming environment capable of utilizing the older units, but in a much more user-
friendly manner, made the switch to the PCIP hardware unnecessary. Those interfaces
would not have extended functionality beyond that of the existing hardware, but in fact
would have reduced the number of available channels of data/control signal switching.
The HP 3455A digital multimeter (Figure 4) used has speed and resolution proven
suitable for control of the tunnel, and additionally, it can be operated manually
independently of the computer system for verification of subsystem operations. Over the
past decade the unit has twice suffered component failure due to overheating, but the
addition of control-room air conditioning and auxiliary cooling fans have extended the
life of this DMM greatly. Recalibration of the load cells associated with the force
balance, and recalibrations of the meter itself have shown that this device continues to
give accurate and repeatable readings of resistance and voltage values from those load
cells.

The Current System

Recognition of system limitations of existing equipment, and increased capabilities

associated with upgrades are essential to identifying paths to successful upgrade of
systems such as these. In the current economic
environment, combining system upgrades with
proposals for new research or special funding has been
critical to attaining new computer equipment. Such
combinations have resulted in improvements to the
wind tunnel facility in particular, including the
acquisition of a two-axis laser Doppler velocimeter,
and a of hot-film anemometers and probes. This
equipment insures that the students can be exposed to
state-of-the-art, precision measurements during their
undergraduate education. The acquisition of such
supporting equipment, and the continued maintenance
of good woodworking and metalworking facilities have
helped to insure that the facility is ready to give the
students a meaningful laboratory experience.
The latest program developed for wind tunnel
operation by students as new as first semester freshmen
represents the culmination of work accomplished by
many students, over several years.
Figure 5: Checklist
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The components of the LabVIEW program are illustrated in the following description,

“Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference &
Exposition Copyright 2004, American Society for Engineering Education”
which details the contents of the graphical interfaces used for control of the wind tunnel
and selection of various data acquisition options.

The Pre-startup Checklist Panel (Figure5) contains a step-by-step checklist of all pre-start
actions, including air and power supply configuration as well as communications system
and recording/control systems readiness.

The Initialization Panel (Figure 6) allows for changes to default transducer slope values,
and allows for inputs of reference pressure values, to correspond with reference voltage
values obtained from
transducers. The
progression of the
program is sequential
until the main tunnel
run panel is
displayed, then a case
structure is followed,
as shown in Figure 7.
Note that the loop for
Emergency Stop runs
in the background
continuously.

Figure 6: Initialization panel

Figure 7: Flowchart of the Main Tunnel Run Panel

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“Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference &
Exposition Copyright 2004, American Society for Engineering Education”
 The Main Tunnel Run
Panel (Figure 8) allows
initial startup only if the
checklist/initialization
panels are completed. It
allows for direct change
of velocity or model
angle-of-attack, or
choosing of sub-panels for
collecting force balance
data and the acquisition
with or without pressure
scanner data. Prominent
buttons allow for tunnel
start and tunnel shutdown
and program termination.
Figure 8: Main Panel

The Take AoA/Force Balance Data acquisition panel allows change of velocity or angle
of attack, allows emergency shutdown, as well as single point data or multi-point data
collection and display. Velocity, temperature, density, angle-of-attack, lift, drag, side
force, and pitching moment are calculated and displayed. This panel allows for data
save or append to an existing comma delimited file. For multiple data points, a range of
angles-of-attack and selection of the desired angle increment are all that are required to
initiate an automatic sequence of data acquisition and angle-of-attack control.

Each line of the resulting multiple point data file is in the same sequence as for a single
data point. This panel also
allows termination of the
program on emergency
shutdown, or exit to main
program.

Similarly, the Force Balance

with Pressure Data
Acquisition Panel (Figure 4)
also allows change of velocity
or angle-of-attack, emergency
shut-down, and single point
data collection. It displays
single point data on screen
plus an array of pressure data
(32 channels). It allows
Figure 9: Force Balance with Pressure Data Acquisition for data save or appends to
existing comma separated
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Exposition Copyright 2004, American Society for Engineering Education”
values files. Multiple data point collection over a range of angles of attack are handled in
the same manner discussed previously. Block diagrams of the airspeed and angle of
attack data acquisition and control sub-programs are given below in Figure 10. Note that
the tolerance switch remains closed until the tolerance is attained for both angle of attack
and velocity.

Figure 10: Velocity/AoA Block Diagrams

The importance of being able to re-equip and reprogram DACS instrumentation and data
presentation from experiments is essential in maintaining a productive research
laboratory with a positive image. As each successive group of student researchers have
extended the capabilities of previous programs, their collective product has been nothing
short of impressive as the control programs used have always been up-to-date. At the
present time, we have preserved the last several generations of control computers and
programming, so that students can experience the rapid progress over the past few years
first-hand. As each system is used to control tunnel functions, the improvements that
have been made, particularly in real-time signal processing and data presentation, are
readily apparent.

In the near future the digital multi-meter and multi-plexer will be replaced, and the
external balance will be supplanted by a robotic arm and internal stings for models.
Later, when the propulsion system is replaced with a digitally controlled drive and fan,
the tunnel replacement will be complete. This will most likely coincide with the
renovation of the building that was built to house this system. Consideration is even
being given to returning the tunnel to its early open loop operation, perhaps with an
“open test section”. Then its legacy will only be apparent in the shelves full of bound
reports reflecting the collective and continuing efforts of the many to keep this legacy
tunnel alive and healthy.

Conclusions

Periodic reprogramming of wind tunnel data acquisition and control systems is necessary
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“Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference &
Exposition Copyright 2004, American Society for Engineering Education”
to maintain and extend system capabilities. The Mississippi State University wind tunnel
system has been successfully upgraded multiple times over a span of several decades.
Each upgrade activity has provided significant educational opportunities, both for the
students directly involved in the upgrade and for the students that followed. The lessons
taught by these activities could never have been learned through operation of turn-key
facilities. Perhaps this will be justification for preserving this facility, or at least for
continuing to maintain several generations of its programs for a more effective learning
experience.

Bibliographic Information

1. Hester, L.R., et al., “Wind Tunnel System Files: A collection of system descriptions, electrical
schematics, drawings and notes”, Patterson Lab Archives, Mississippi State University, c1980-1985
2. Iles, R., “An Investigation of a Digital Control System with Transport and Time Delay”, MS thesis,
Mississippi State University, 1984
3. Bridges, D., “The Development of a Boundary Layer Measurement Experiment”, Senior Seminar
Report ASE 2712, Mississippi State University, 1985
4. Fugate, M., “Working Hardware and Software for Communications Between Apple III and Hewlett-
Packard Computers”, Special Topic Report ASE 7003, Mississippi State University, 1986
5. Messer, B., “Control Loop Response Characteristics of the Supersonic Wind Tunnel”, Senior Seminar
Report ASE 2712, Mississippi State University, 1987
6. Burchak, R., “A Least-Squares Cubic Polynomial Spline Fit Algorithm for Data Smoothing”, MS
Thesis, Mississippi State University, 1987
7. Godwin, S., “Investigation of the Boundary Layer Near the Leading Edge of a Flat Plate at Zero Angle
of Attack”, Special Topic Report, Mississippi State University, 1987
8. Podbielski,C., “Development of a Real Time Data Acquisition and Control Program”, Senior Seminar
Report ASE 2712, Mississippi State University, 1989
9. Hannigan, T., “Analysis and Development of a Computer Controlled High Speed Data Acquisition and
Control System for a Blowdown Supersonic Wind Tunnel”, MS Thesis, Mississippi State University, 1990
10. Arellano-Gomez, M., “Integration and Refinement of Multi-Computer Data Acquisition and Control
Systems Programming Into a Single-Computer Application for a Flat Plate Boundary-Layer Study With a
One-Component Hot Film Anemometer”, MS Thesis, Mississippi State University, 1993
11. Gross, J., “Development, Implementation, and Refinement of Hardware and Software for the
Investigation of Two Dimensional Flow Fields With an X-Array Hot-Film Anemometer”, MS Thesis,
Mississippi State University, 1994
12. Caldwell, D., “Adaptation and Development of Wind Tunnel Data Acquisition and Control System
with LabVIEW”, Senior Seminar Report ASE 4113, Mississippi State University, 1998
13. McAllister, B., “Subsonic Wind Tunnel Data Acquisition and Control Program [Development, Testing,
and Refinement with Testpoint]”, Special Topic Report ASE 4004, Mississippi State University, 1999
14. Sebens, J., “Subsonic Wind Tunnel Data Acquisition and Control Program [Development, Testing and
Refinement with LabVIEW], Special Topic Report, ASE 4113, Mississippi State University, 2000
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Biographical Information

THOMAS HANNIGAN
Thomas Hannigan is an Instructor of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. He received his
BS and MS degrees from Mississippi State University. His interests include introductory engineering
mechanics, airplane flight mechanics, and he coordinates laboratory activities for the department. He holds
FAA Gold Seal Flight Instructor Certification for single, multi engine and instrument airplanes.

KEITH KOENIG
Keith Koenig is a Professor of Aerospace Engineering. He received his BS degree from Mississippi State
University and his MS and PhD degrees from the California Institute of Technology. Prof. Koenig teaches
courses in aerodynamics and propulsion. His research areas include rocket and scramjet propulsion and
sports equipment engineering.

BRYAN GASSAWAY
Bryan Gassaway is a lecturer and PhD student in the Aerospace Engineering Department. He received his
BS and MS degrees from Mississippi State University. He teaches astrodynamics and has taught courses
introducing aerospace engineering, flight mechanics, stability and control, structures, propulsion and
astrodynamics, as well as assisting with the laboratory classes.

VIVA AUSTIN
Viva Austin is a graduate teaching assistant in the senior aerospace engineering laboratories. She obtained
her BS degree in aerospace engineering from Mississippi State University, and is currently enrolled as a
candidate for a master of science degree. She assists in teaching upper division laboratory classes as well
as assisting in the conduct of laboratory activities for three lower division introductory classes.

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“Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference &
Exposition Copyright 2004, American Society for Engineering Education”