On this page we have a list of ideas and guidelines for school projects that can find a home in the Bill Smilie Aviation Center.  Think of this as an exercise in the entrepreneurial spirit, creativity and thinking outside the box.

Guidelines

We have no rules, limitations or requirements for your projects.
Your approach to this project will contain soft skills lessons.  Soft skills (shown below in parenthesis) are skills that are valuable in the real world but not specifically taught in school. 

You are free to determine what your project will be.  There is no approval process for you to go through with the Bill Smilie Aviation Center. (Freedom & Responsibility)

The lists below are not lists to choose from.  They are ideas to start your imagination.  If you need ideas for subjects not shown here, send us an e-mail with your request.

You can recruit help from parents, family, friends, enemies or whoever. (Resourcefulness, Leadership & Teamwork)

You can send us an e-mail about your project idea.  We will refer you to local people you can interview to help develop the idea.

The Bill Smilie Aviation Center can provide funding, materials, skills, advice or resources for some projects.

You can take your project idea to your teacher from any subject you think is appropriate and negotiate credit.  You may be able to have your project approved to fill a specific homework assignment or as extra credit.  You may be able to qualify for an independent study course which would consist of your project(s).  (Initiative, Independence & Reliability)

You can create a project for grammar school, home school, middle school, high school, college and graduate work.  We will welcome all levels of projects.

You can create a project not for school at all but as a personal interest, youth group, service club project or family project.

You can create a project during the summer then try to negotiate credit from a teacher from an appropriate subject when school is in session.  (Entrepreneurship & Initiative)

You can pursue a project that you are genuinely interested in with no desire of school credit.  (Self Edification)

You can assemble a team of students who may be seeking credit in different subjects, may be from different schools or may bring different skills to the table.  (Integration & Cooperation)

You can seek funding for your project through your own contacts as a tax deductible donation since the end product will be donated to a tax deductible charity.  (Creative Solutions, Salesmanship & Communication Skills)

The project ideas shown below are just a beginning.  What you do with any idea to make it worthy of school credit and / or museum display is left to your creativity and imagination.

You can produce a project that can be displayed in any combination of our mobile museums, rotating static museums and / or virtual museums. 

Your project can be written, physical, virtual, scientific, visual, hands-on, historical, geographical, photographic, performance, 3-dimensional, artistic, modeled, mathematical, video, audio or any other form that suits you.

Once you have donated your completed project to the Bill Smilie Aviation Center we will be diligent to showcase your work to the public through the various means at our disposal.

Project Ideas

Geography:

Show the locations of residential airparks throughout the country and/or world.

Identify countries that do not have airline service.

Showcase unique airports in the World.

Showcase countries that have created various aircraft.

Identify locations of famous aircraft events.

Government:

Showcase in full the governmental processes that Bill Smilie had to go through in creating Sierra Sky Park the first residential airpark in the World.

Research and report the regulatory bodies that deal with commercial, general, military, experimental & recreational aviation.

Interview war veterans of different countries who currently live in the San Joaquin Valley and report on differences and similarities of military life for the different countries.

Science:

Create an exhibit that demonstrates air pressure.  Air pressure can be described with a household vacuum cleaner and a leaf blower.  That concept can be used to explain high pressure and low pressure fronts in weather, why your ears pop when driving up a mountain or climbing in a plane, why engines have manifold pressure and vacuum, how wind is generated, why airliners pressurize the cabin during flight, how a wing generates lift, why the back of an SUV gets dirtier on a road trip than the rest of the car and more.  Show the similarity between the pressure you feel when swimming deep in water and the increase in air pressure as you descend from a mountain.

Create an exhibit that shows what happens when an airplane wing stalls.  Demonstrate why a plane that is designed for high performance is more susceptible to crashing due to a wing stall and how that can be avoided.  Demonstrate the principle of trade-offs, ie: To design a plane for training you have to sacrifice some other characteristic such as performance, cost, utility, asthetics and appearance.  The principle of trade-offs exists in all aspects of life and can be demonstrated in many ways in aviation.

Research and report on the differences between an automotive alternator and a certified aircraft alternator.  It is basically the same device manufactured by the same companies but the regulations for manufacturing, storage and chain of delivery make the cost of all certified aviation parts much higher than for other applications.  These regulations are developed when a seemingly insignificant detail is determined to be the cause of an aviation accident.

Create an exhibit that shows the effect of using dissimilar metals in aircraft and what effect corrosion can have on a plane.  Report on what measures are taken to reduce the risk in this issue.

Create an exhibit that shows the differences between automotive fuel and aviation fuel and the consequences of using the wrong fuel.  Explain why some aircraft correctly use automotive fuel.

Create an exhibit that reveals the science principles involved with an aircraft altimeter, air speed indicator, VSI and artificial horizon.  Create devices to demonstrate the principles involved.

Math:

Create an exhibit that portrays weight and balance calculations and consequences for aircraft.

Create an exhibit or report that explains how and why a small plane or airliner might choose to carry less than full fuel even if it causes the need for an extra refueling stop.

Create flight plans for long distance cross country flights and explain the course headings, fuel use, wind correction angles, magnetic deviation and estimated time enroute.

Create an exhibit that shows the cost of buying and/or operating a private airplane.  Find out all the cost factors that need to be considered.  Include alternatives for partnerships, renting, club planes, lease backs, certificated production aircraft, experimental, new, used, light sport, ultralights, hanggliders, gliders.

Technology, Industrial Arts and Engineering:

Design and create an aircraft flight simulator using a real but non-flying airplane using hydraulics, computer, flat screen monitor, sensors on flight surface controls and flight simulator software mounted on a trailer that can be taken to community events.  Funding available.

Design and create a multiple computer learning center built into a trailer for use with computer based educational and flight simulator software at community events.  Funding available.

Design and create a display environment in a trailer to exhibit projects created by students.  Funding available.

Design plans for an airplane.  Conduct interviews with aircraft historians for noteworthy design ideas.

History:

Create a timeline showing the significant developments in flight.  Relate the different developments to other historical events such as presidents, movie stars, wars, car models, foreign affairs, racial integration, Olympics, women’s rights, sports figures, your personal family tree or any field that interests you.

Trace the development of airlines from their roots to current day.

Identify and tell the story of significant aviators through history.

Interview local senior aviators and report on their personal experiences through history.

Create an exhibit telling the history story of local airports including the ones no longer existing.

Browse through aviation books to pick up on a story or subject that intrigues you then research the subject further.  Create an exhibit or report to reveal what you discovered.

ART:

Research aviation art.  Create an exhibit of the development of aviation art through the years.  Include all variety of mediums. 

Create an art project that has an aviation theme.  Painting, sculpting, photography, video, drawing or any medium that interests you.  Aviation themes could include aircraft, pilots, Earth as seen from aircraft or space craft, weather patterns, atmosphere segments, cloud phenomon, landing strips in pristine environments, ultralight aircraft guiding flocks of birds on new migration routes through scenic areas, war time aviation, formations of aircraft, hot air balloons and much more.

Technology:

Research and create an exhibit about cutting edge and future technology in development for personal, commercial, military and airline aviation.

Research and create an exhibit about technologically unique aircraft.

Create an exhibit revealing how GPS technology works and what has to be done to maintain and improve it.  What are the risks of using GPS navigation in aircraft? 

Research and report on the role of aviation in agriculture.  It is more than crop dusting.

Create an exhibit that reveals how and why Google Earth works.

Psychology & Physiology:

Create a report about airplane accidents that were attributed to psychological or physiological factors.

Create an exhibit that shows what issues exist related to light and color while flying at night.  Why is it bad to have a white flashlight in the cockpit of an airplane at night.

Create an exhibit that demonstrates why a pilot may not see a plane in front of him unless he turns head in a different direction.

Create a report on the subject of how a pilot can hear the tower give him a clearance to land when they did not. 

Create a report on the subject of why a pilot may see an empty runway ahead when there is a plane on the runway.