LHS Students Combine History and 3-D Printing

LHS Students Combine History and 3-D Printing
Posted on 01/24/2024

By Mavis Fodness, Rock County Star Herald

Luverne High School engineering technology students combined a history lesson with three- dimensional printing to build a model of the war plane flown by the late Quentin Aanenson, a recent Luverne Alumni Hall of Fame inductee.

Teacher Bill Thompson wanted students to wrap up his engineering class by building replicas of the P-47 Thunderbolt plane flown by Aanenson when he was a fighter pilot in World War II.

Aanenson graduated from LHS in 1939.

To start the assignment, students watched excerpts of “The War” documentary, which featured Aanenson going off to war after graduating from Luverne.

“I thought it would be a great engineering project that combines 3D prototyping, woodworking and art,” Thompson said.

“We wanted to honor Quentin’s legacy as we worked on the project.”

Students made the model planes out of wood and used the 3D printer to fabricate the more detailed aircraft parts out of plastic.

“We used historical images of his plane and painted it to match as well,” Thompson said.

Students used band saws and power sanders to form the plane’s main wing, fuselage and tail wing parts from wood.

With TinkerCAD software, students designed the nose cone, wheel mounts/wheels and propeller parts online before producing the plastic parts on Makerbot 3D printers.

The history lesson was added to the engineering technology class after the Luverne Alumni Hall of Fame induction ceremony included Aanenson as one of the first members in October.

“Most of the students really like the project as it combines woodworking and 3D printing, which is really fun,” Thompson said.

“Many of my classes use art in the form of airbrushing or detail painting, so painting the planes has been rewarding, too.”

Students hold model planes

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