Goodrich

Brilliant name for a company, I decided when I was first briefed about the trip. The good and the rich. Of course, this disguises the nature of the company's work, well, till the point where google is concerned. On that fine Monday afternoon, after an informative trip to Applied Materials, the group of HCI students journeyed to Goodrich Corp. With a slight delay at the entrance gate, we were seated in a high ceiling(befitting of an aerospace company) room where we were given a good and rich understanding of the work they did, and how they did it.

They make and design nacelles which are basically housing for external aircraft parts such as the engine. They use durable and lightweight materials known as composite materials such as carbon laminate and carbon sandwich. They conceptualize the end product with a MSC software, make a prototype and subject it to a wide range of tests to determine its durability.

We were taken to a tour of their working areas where they made the plates of the nacelle. We had just enough time for a couple of stations in which the end product was a plate. I may not be a very good judge of hardness and durability, but I think I know a hard plate when I see one.

We ended the day with some light refreshment. Despite it being a short trip of approximately 3 hours, the learning was no less than the one in the morning. The day ended on a grey sky, a sky where the planes return to rest in the hangers, and we return to rest in bed.