• Question: Do you find working on planes challenging, if so what is challenging about it?

    Asked by ellie to Sarah on 8 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Sarah Hunt

      Sarah Hunt answered on 8 Nov 2016:

      Hi Ellie, yes I find there are challenges every day in my job. The two biggest challenges in turbine (the really hot bit of the engine) design are temperature and weight. We want to make the planes burn less fuel so we make them as light as possible. And we want to make them more powerful so we make them as hot as the materials can handle. The turbine blades are so hot that, as a designer, I need to design a way of cooling them from the inside without them breaking apart when the engine is flying. This bit of the design is really challenging! 🙂

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