Willie Costa - Aerospace Engineer
  • Home
  • About
  • Relevant Experience
  • Achievements & Honors
  • Resume
  • Portfolio
    • Formula SAE
    • Axial-Flux Generator
    • SeaLion
    • Tiltrotor Whirl Flutter
    • Ganymede
    • Hammerhead
    • TR-150 Civil Tiltrotor
    • Cal Poly Flutter Club
    • JAGUAR
    • Artemis
    • MGT Reducer
    • iFly

Portfolio

The heart of engineering is rooted in mathematics and physics, but the soul of engineering is embodied by the ability to apply theoretical knowledge to practical, real-world problems using a hands-on approach to create lasting solutions. I've always felt that time spent relaxing, watching television, or sleeping is time better spent learning new things and trying to apply your knowledge to interesting and challenging problems. My attitude has always been "Why not?" rather than "Why bother?", and it's led to me acquiring some skills over the years that I never thought I'd have, including:
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  • operating a three-axis and five-axis mill
  • operating a lathe
  • using a waterjet
  • indexing a sealing flange on a rotary table to manually cut O-ring seats
  • pressure-turning a sealing lip on a lathe (essentially machining a part that's "floating" between plates rather than being secured)
  • flying several types of aircraft (some of which started life as napkin sketches, and most of which have survived)
  • designing, building, and flying rockets and scratch-built rocket motors
  • fabricating composites using wet layup, vacuum bagging, RTM/VARTM, autoclave, and out-of-autoclave techniques
  • using sensors and data acquisition electronics
  • getting to use an $80,000 laser vibrometer
  • and much, much more...

Very few of  the projects on this page were the result of school assignments. In fact, only three were academic in nature. The rest were undertaken purely for a bit of fun and to satisfy my own burning curiosity. Several of these were done to solve someone else's problem, and I took it upon myself (usually without asking) to create a solution for them.

This is, in fact, how I still enjoy spending most of my free time now: making someone else's processes and capabilities better, more efficient, and more successful. This means I've worked to solve problems not only for small student groups and solopreneurs, but also million-dollar corporations. Because at the end of the day, engineering is not about solving math problems: it's about using logic and reason (with some physics and creativity mixed in) to tackle real problems that are often ill-defined and require an involved and dedicated approach.
FORMULA SAE
AXIAL-FLUX GENERATOR
SEALION
TILTROTOR WHIRL FLUTTER
GANYMEDE
HAMMERHEAD
TR-150 CIVIL TILTROTOR
CAL POLY FLUTTER CLUB
JAGUAR
ARTEMIS
MGT REDUCER
iFLY

Contact me to talk aerospace engineering or any other nerd stuff. 

All images on this site, unless otherwise stated, are copyright Willie Costa.


email

willie.j.costa@gmail.com

linkedin

linkedin.com/in/aerowillie
  • Home
  • About
  • Relevant Experience
  • Achievements & Honors
  • Resume
  • Portfolio
    • Formula SAE
    • Axial-Flux Generator
    • SeaLion
    • Tiltrotor Whirl Flutter
    • Ganymede
    • Hammerhead
    • TR-150 Civil Tiltrotor
    • Cal Poly Flutter Club
    • JAGUAR
    • Artemis
    • MGT Reducer
    • iFly