As part of the Advanced Technology Project’s aim to explore career opportunities in defence industries, Valley View High School, Fremont-Elizabeth City High School, Craigmore High School and St Patrick’s Technical College participated in a two day Aerospace Event held at UniSA and the RAAF Base, Edinburgh. Students were exposed to a range of different activities relating to Aerospace and Avionic Industries.
On day one of the program, Lockheed Martin presented a workshop about the many different career pathways into the industry, focusing in particular on engineering and technical opportunities. Students were then challenged to design a paper plane that could travel the furthest distance. It was great to see the students applying the engineering principles of designing, testing, modifying and retesting in this process
The second part of the day was a series of small practical tasks run by UniSA designed to lead the students to an understanding of how changes in air flow over different surfaces provides the lift to allow an aircraft to fly. Students found these activities very engaging
After a delicious morning tea, Chris Izzo, an Avionics student at UniSA, Timothy Hudson, a young Flying Officer who is an electronics/electrical engineer from the Joint Electronic Warfare Operational Support Unit in RAAF and Stewart Schreckengast from Parafield Airport Avionics Academy, gave short presentations about the areas that they work in in the Aerospace industry.
The second day of the program involved a visit to Australian Aerospace and the RAAF Base at Edinburgh. Tony Bernardo from Australian Aerospace gave us a guided tour through a hangar housing a P3 Orion. Students had the opportunity to see the workings on the aircraft and also to have a look inside. Students were given a good background about their service in the RAAF and the types of trades that support the maintenance of the aircraft. Tony also gave us a guided tour of the RAAF base.
Paul Nenasheff, Work Experience Officer at RAAF, organised for the students to visit another hangar and speak with maintenance staff about the aircraft and also about a career the Air Force. This was followed up by a very good presentation on the physics of flying a helicopter. As well as some amazing footage, the physics was very relevant to year 11 and 12 Physics courses.
Students came away from the event with a very good understanding of career opportunities in the Aerospace and Avionics Industries. We would like to thank all of the people who contributed to the success of the event and in particular to teachers Bob Haskard, Karen McBride, Cheryl Ball and Celina Bolding for their work in organising the event.