science

MIT BURD

MIT BURD is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand MIT BURD rather than just read about it. In short: The BURD was a two-place human-powered biplane, designed and built by graduates and undergraduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with Professors Eugene Covert and James Mar acting as project advisers. It was developed with the specific goal of winning the £50,000 Kremer prize then on offer.

Key takeaways

MIT BURD belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect MIT BURD to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of MIT BURD from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The BURD was a two-place human-powered biplane, designed and built by graduates and undergraduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with Professors Eugene Covert and James Mar acting as project advisers. It was developed with the specific goal of winning the £50,000 Kremer prize then on offer. BURD is an acronym for "Biplane Ultralight Research Device", reflecting the aircraft's configuration. The project was notable for it involving computational analysis as well as wind-tunnel tests of a scale model. The two-person option was adopted, as that allowed for a better power-to-weight ratio. The canard configuration was selected due that giving a beneficial increase in lift. The biplane configuration, fitted with endplates, was adopted due to the aerodynamic and structural benefits from using that arrangement. The primary structure for the fuselage was made from aluminum tubing, while the primary structure for the flying surfaces were box-beam spars made from sheet balsa. The secondary structure was made primarily from balsa, with aluminum tubing and sheets used in high-stress areas. The entire airframe was covered in transparent film. The undercarriage consisted of two bicycle wheels, arranged in tandem. As originally built, the front wheel was fixed, and not able to be steered. The two-person crew sat in a tandem arrangement, and powered a chain drive which connected to both the rear undercarriage wheel and the rear-mounted pusher propeller. Pitch control was to be achieved by pivoting the foreplane in its entirety. Lateral and directional control was to be attained by spoilers mounted on the lower wing, with the spoilers producing a yawing force in the direction of the turn that the aircraft was being banked towards. In addition, a vertical fin was located above the upper wing. The BURD was completed in May 1973. Taxiing tests conducted at Hanscom Field airport in Bedford, Massachusetts, revealed significant design and construction issues. Alterations were made to the undercarriage, the drive system, and to the controls for both the foreplane and the spoilers. In 1975, the first flight attempt took place, but ended with an almost complete structural collapse of the aircraft. In 1976, a new iteration of the design, named the MIT BURD II, was built, with this craft incorporating a number of detail changes from the original.

Specifications Data from The M.I.T. Man-Powered Aircraft and Man-powered aircraftGeneral characteristics Crew: 2 Length: 27 ft (8.2 m) Wingspan: 62 ft (19 m) Height: 15 ft (4.6 m) Wing area: 640 sq ft (59 m2) plus 60 sq ft (5.60 m2) canard wing area Airfoil: Wortmann FX61-163 Empty weight: 128 lb (58 kg) Gross weight: 400 lb (181 kg) Propellers: 2-bladed, 10 ft (3.0 m) diameter Performance

Maximum speed: 17.75 mph (28.57 km/h, 15.42 kn) Wing loading: 0.66 lb/sq ft (3.2 kg/m2)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with MIT BURD

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what MIT BURD claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to MIT BURD before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about MIT BURD ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of MIT BURD

In research: MIT BURD appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses MIT BURD in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: MIT BURD is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1970s United States experimental aircraft, Aircraft with fixed bicycle landing gear, Biplanes, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for MIT BURD outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study MIT BURD in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what MIT BURD means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain MIT BURD out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is MIT BURD in simple terms?

Why does MIT BURD matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study MIT BURD?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on MIT BURD.