IOWA CITY — West High seniors Sam Glenn and James Kincade and junior Dalton Strauser recently stood at a workbench in a metal shop, each with a pair of scissors in one hand and a piece of aluminum in the other.
Their goal: to turn the aluminum into an airfoil or wings to be attached to a piece of foam to test in flight.
“We’ll be able to test the aerodynamic properties (of the airfoil),” Kincade said.
The project was the latest in the new aerospace engineering class at West High. Part of the national Project Lead the Way pre-engineering curriculum, students are able to learn about the principles of aerospace engineering in high school, said teacher Scott Kahler, a former aerospace engineer at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids.