Arthur is a third year cadet of the French Air Force Academy. He joined LPL as part of a requirement to complete his engineering degree in Aeronautics and here is an account of his experience:
In the French Air Force, three years of school as an officer are dedicated to obtaining an engineering degree. In order to complete it (after two and a half years of academic training), the students have to do a 5 month (for the non pilot officers) or a 3.5 month (for the pilots) internship at a university, a company, or an embassy. As I was looking for an internship, I had the chance to know a 1 year older cadet who came at ISI (SERC) to do his internship in 2019. I asked him to give me his contact here (Professor David Barnhart) and I contacted him. He accepted to take me in, along with five other French Air Force Academy students. David found me a place to work at LPL and it was a great experience even if Covid-19 shortened it.
I worked particularly on the design of the new swirl injector for J&J, and also conducted CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) on the gaseous oxygen side and fuel side. I also designed a 3D printed version of the same injector at SERC to better visualize it. Along with that, I also conducted some experiments with Hydra Test Stand at Bracket Airfield and on campus. It was really cool to finally put my hands on hardware as the most of the work done at the French Air Force Academy is theoretical.
The standout memory I keep from this experience was the welcome I received at LPL when I first arrived, and all the moments when I was in the lab working with everyone on different projects. All the lab members were so nice and friendly, and it makes want to come back!
Arthur has obtained his Engineering Degree, and will now be assigned his first job as an Officer.