Congratulations to Piotr, the Model of the Month winner for September! He has created this impressive “Ejection Seat”. Hear more from Piotr, about himself, his background, experience using Fusion 360 and what lies ahead.

About me

Hello all. My name is Piotr Chmielewski. I am 22 years old and am currently studying Aviation Engineering at Wroclaw University of Technology. As part of my studies, I’m most interested in low speed aerodynamics, low Reynolds number airfoils and low drag airfoils. For the past two years I have participated in the SAE Aero Design contest in the US with my peers. As part of the project, I was  responsible for aerodynamics and the design of our planes. We have won some significant awards including the Micro class in 2014 (SAE Aero Design West). Ever since I was a child, I have loved flying and aircraft. Upon graduation, my dream job would be designing gliders or unmanned aircraft vehicles.

About the Ejection Seat

As a result of my studies I’m learning a lot about aircraft parts and rescue components such as the ejection seat. The Ejection Seat, in my opinion, is truly the art of engineering. This system was designed to rescue the pilot or other crew of an aircraft (usually military) in emergency situations. The main purpose of the ejection seat is the very fast evacuation of a pilot from the cockpit (ejection sequence taking no longer than one sec). It must also protect the pilot by providing emergency oxygen during dangerously high altitudes and by providing a survival kit when pilot have emergency situations in dangerous areas. Ejection seats are equipped in a lot of systems such as pyrotechnics systems, two independent electrical systems, stability systems and parachute deployment systems. All of the mechanics systems are doubled in this way eliminating failure of the ejection. My model was inspired by a K-36DM, an ejection seat used in the Polish Air Force.

Why Fusion 360

As part of my studies, I have gained expericence with many CAD products including AutoCAD, Inventor Professional, Solid Edge, Solid Works, and CATIA. I chose to use Fusion 360 because it is very easy to learn and extremely easy to use. All CAD software has similar features, but many are not easy to find. Fusion 360 has all of the important features in very intuitive places and does not contain too many complicated and unnecessary functions. I love the rendering and animation environments in Fusion 360. Rendering and making a fast animation was never an easy task for me prior to using Fusion 360.

Future projects

Currently, I’m working on a “High altitude solar powered UAV” design. I’m considering making the prototype of this aircraft in 1:5 scale, but am first focusing on the 3D model. Keep an eye out on it in the Gallery and let me know what you think!