Some of Penn State's brightest students are spending countless hours in Hammond Building trying to figure out how to soar like eagles.

Aerospace Engineering 204H and 404H (Flight Vehicle Design and Fabrication I and II Honors) offer students a four-year-long opportunity to take part in a glider design and construction course.

The "sailplane" course represents the fruition of aerospace engineering professor Mark Maughmer's efforts to create an Akaflieg (from the German Akademischen Fliegergruppen, or Academic Flying Groups) in a way to educate students.

Thirty-two students from a variety of academic backgrounds take part in the course, which is still in its developmental stages.

In 1990, a report from the Engineering Coalition of Schools for Excellence in Engineering Leadership (ECSEL) found that American schools didn't promote group work, creativity or hands-on training.

Maughmer and another Penn State faculty member created the courses to combat these shortcomings.

The courses don't rely on traditional tests or even a set course syllabus. Instead, specific lectures are given to address whatever problems the students would be having in the construction of their gliders.

Because of the camaraderie developed from hours spent working in the lab, an atmosphere "like that of Greek-letter fraternities" has developed, Maughmer said.

The class has become quite popular with students, he added.

A $24,000 kit-based sailplane donated to Penn State failed structural tests, but students in the course were able remedy that problem.

This illustrates that the class is not just a glider assembly line, Maughmer said. "Sailplanes are a vehicle to education," he said.

The mountains around State College are world-renowned in the glider community. "Students come here because that's what they want to do," Maughmer said. "The soaring here is wonderful."

When students in the course or those in the Penn State Soaring Club, which is informally affiliated with the course, are gliding, they pay careful attention to birds flying nearby.

Natural fliers such as bald eagles or hawks use their ability to detect changes in smell or acceleration to find the best lifts on which to fly.

"The class really gave me a perspective on how gliders work. It really draws a nice connection between the flying I do and the physics I know," said Joe Masiero (junior-astronomy and astrophysics).

Masiero is in his third semester of the sailplane course. "It's a club you can get credit for," he said.

Masiero said, however, some of the calculations can be very difficult.

Still, his main complaint about the class is that students are only permitted to enroll for eight semesters.

"The class is really a great family. If I didn't love it, I wouldn't do it," he added. Professor Maughmer said the class has begun work on a lightweight, easy-to-build plane because students' have an instinct to "build a Ferrari when we ask them to build a Model T."

He said form should follow function.

Course instructor Göetz "Pipa" Bramesfeld (graduate-aerospace engineering) compares flying a glider with riding a bike that has a level that can control the inclination of the hill it's on -- a trade of height for speed.

"The experience is totally exhilarating. You feel like you're defying gravity," Bramesfeld said.