|
Ovens are used for cooking, and sometimes for arts and crafts. But did you know they can also be used to make helicopter blades?
That’s exactly what University of Maryland (UMD) aerospace engineering doctoral student Marge Donovan and her collaborators at the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center (AGRC) do each week as they design and test some of the most sophisticated blades yet invented.
“You start by putting a piece of foam into an aluminum mold, and then you bake it in an oven at 350 degrees for an hour,” explains Donovan, whose advisor is UMD Aerospace Engineering Professor Anubhav Datta. “You take it out and wrap it in carbon fiber, then bake it again, this time for three hours. After that, you’ve got a blade.”
It’s the hands-on aspect of the work that appeals to Donovan, who says that since childhood she’s enjoyed building things and taking them apart.
Of course, her work at the AGRC is not purely for fun: the blades she’s designing can be used to improve rotorcraft performance at high altitudes. They may even, someday, be used for helicopter flights on Mars.
 UMD has a long history of involvement with Martian rotorcraft flight; the Ingenuity helicopter, which whirred above the planet for the first time in April 2019, incorporated key aspects of a design thought up by UMD graduate students twenty years earlier. Datta, now a full professor at UMD, was one of those students. With the initial milestone achieved, the push is on to engineer blades that are even lighter and more resilient than the ones used originally.
Geometry can be part of the solution, says Donovan, whose research involves experimenting with different geometric configurations. She models these using a simulation tool known as X3D, which was created by UMD students, before manufacturing them physically.
It’s painstaking work, often involving long hours in the lab. Yet Donovan has also found time while a graduate student to pursue one of her other passions: lacrosse.
And she’s not just a recreational player. In 2024, she was tapped to join the U.S. national box lacrosse team, which went on to win the world championships. Donovan plays both box lacrosse—an indoor version of the sport—as well as the better known outdoor variety.
How does she do it? “I'm passionate about both,” she said. “I truly love the work I do at the AGRC. and it’s the same with lacrosse.”
“For both lacrosse and engineering, I seem to always have the energy,” she said.
July 2, 2025
|
