Brainstorming and Barnstorming:

Basics of Flight

Flight History
First flight: The Wright Flyer 1903 Break Speed of Sound: Bell X-1A 1947 Land on Moon: Apollo 11 1969 Circumnavigate Earth on one tank of gas: Global Flyer 2005 Weve come a long way

Major Topics

Terminology and Theory Forces of Flight Aircraft Design

Basic Aircraft Terminology

Airfoil: Cross sectional shape of a wing Leading Edge: Front edge of wing Trailing Edge: Back edge of wing Chord Line: Line connecting LE to TE Camber: Center line between top and bottom of wing
High camber found on slow flying high lift aircraft

Wing Layout
Planform: Vertical projection of wing area
Elliptical: good for high speed Straight: root stalls, but cheap to make Tapered: good stall characteristics Delta: used for supersonic flight

Wing Layout
Sweep: Angle between the lateral axis and the wing (high speed aircraft) Taper: Chord decreases as you move to the wing tip Incidence: Angle between the longitudinal axis and the wing chord Angle of Attack: Angle between the wing and the relative wind

Wing Layout
Twist: Bending of wing about lateral axis (helps prevent tip stall by changing angle of attack) Anhedral: Downward bend in wing (helps with stability) Dihedral: Upward bend in wing

Corsair: WWII Fighter

Wing Layout
Aspect ratio (AR)= Span^2/Wing Area More efficient for slow aircraft Typical Values
Glider: 20-30 Trainer: 7-9 Loadstar: 18.5 SR-71: Low AR

U2 spy plane: High AR

6 degrees of freedom
Three axes of an aircraft
Longitudinal: Parallel to the fuselage Lateral: Parallel to the wing Normal: Perpendicular to the ground

Control Surfaces: Change Wing by altering the Angle of Attack

Ailerons: horizontal surfaces located on wing tips
Roll: rotation about the longitudinal axis

Elevator: horizontal surface located on the tail

Pitch: rotation about the lateral axis

Rudder: vertical surface located on the tail

Yaw: rotation about the normal axis

Stabilizing Surfaces: Balancing Moments

Vertical Stabilizer: The vertical part of the tail which prevents unwanted yaw Horizontal Stabilizer: Horizontal portion of the tail (or the Canard) that prevents unwanted pitch

Flaps
Change the shape of wing Increase Lift and Drag Used on takeoff and landing

Neutral Point: Location of resultant lift force CG: Center of gravity High Wing: Wing on top (very stable) Mid Wing: Wing in middle (acrobatic) Low Wing: Wing on bottom ( less drag)

Reynolds Number
Reynolds Number (Re): ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces
Re = (D*V*p)/mu D=characteristic length V=velocity p=density Mu= dynamic (absolute) viscosity

A non-dimensionalized number that can be used to relate models to actual aircraft Determines whether a flow is laminar or turbulent in the Boundary Layer (laminar is good) Very useful for aircraft design

Reynolds Number
S1223 at various Reynolds numbers
2.4 Re=61000 2 1.6 1.2 Re=101600 Re=122600 Re=147400

Cl

Re=171400 Re=198100 Re=251900

0.8 0.4 0 -0.4 -10

Re=302200 Re=149500 Re=198900 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25

Angle of Attack (degrees)

Note the difference in stall characteristics for different Re

Boundary Layer
No slip condition at surface (V=0) Effectively alters the shape of the airfoil Separation of the B.L. results in a stall Lead to major advances in aircraft design

Boundary Layer

Forces of Flight
Lift Drag Thrust Weight
For steady, level flight these four forces and the moments they generate must be in equilibrium. An airplane is a force and moment balancing machine.

Lift
Controlled by
Airspeed, angle of attack, altering airfoil, and altering the planform area

Lift = * p * V^2 * A *Cl

P=density, V=velocity, A = wing area Cl=coefficient of lift

How is lift actually generated???

Lift: Equal Transit Time (Wrong)

Air splitting at LE must meet at TE Air on top has a longer path; must travel faster Example: Boeing 747
Weight: 775,000 lbs Airspeed: 550 mph or 810 ft/sec Distance across top: 1.059*bottom Density: 1/39 lb/ft^3 Wing Area: 5,500 ft^2

Boeing 747 Example

Pressure difference:
Punder-Pover=1/2*p*(Vbottom^2-Vtop^2) Punder-Pover=18.75 lbs/ft^2

Lift=P*A=(18.75 lbs/ft^2) * (5500 ft^2) Lift=103,000 lbs Weight=775,000 lbsOoops!!! This theory says that air accelerates thereby causing a pressure gradient. This is completely wrong. A pressure gradient will cause a fluid to accelerates.

Einstein and Lift

Einstein hired by the German Air Force He designed a wing based on the previously described theory It failed miserably He was still relatively successful

Lift is complicated!!!!!!!!
Newton Vs Bernoulli Newton: deflection of air Bernoulli: Pressure gradient Coanda effect Circulation 3-D fluid flow is hard
Pressure Gradient

Newton and Bernoulli

A wing forces air down Thus air forces a wing up A change in the momentum of the fluid results in a force Air in motion creates a pressure difference around the wing
Air being forced down

Coanda Effect
Tendency of a fluid in motion to stick to an object Due to skin friction between fluid and surface The top of the wing also directs air down Experiment with a rolled up paper.

3-D effects of lift

Spanwise flow High pressure on bottom Low pressure on top Air from bottom tries to move to top

Wing Tip Vortex

Return to the lift equation

Lift = * p * V^2 * A * Cl Lift can be explained by the pressure gradient as indicated by the equation The gradient cannot solely be explained by air moving faster over the top of the wing What about this Cl factor????

Coefficient of Lift
Magic number of lift; determined experimentally Constant for any size wing with same airfoil Accounts for unknowns Varies with angle of attack There is an angle where the wing produces zero lift Explains how a wing can fly upside down

Loss of Lift: Stall

Every wing has a stall angle Stall angle is the angle of attack at which the wing loses lift Stall angle range from 12-20 degrees What actually causes a stall???

Stall at high AoA

Boundary layer separates from the surface (inertial vs viscous effects) Effectively changes wing shape Turbulence results that causes more drag and less lift

Drag:
Form Drag: shape of object Skin Friction Drag: surface of object Induced Drag: component of lift Parasitic Drag = Form Drag + Skin Drag Total Drag = Induced Drag + Parasitic Drag
Total Drag = * p * V^2 * A * Cd

Cd is the key and is determined experimentally just like Cl.

Form and Skin Friction Drag

Form Drag Greatly affects slow flying planes Depends upon the frontal area Depends upon how streamlined What does it mean to be streamlined??
Examples of things that are streamlined

Skin Friction Depends upon the surface roughness

Form Drag
How do we know if an object is streamlined?
Nature, wind tunnel testing, conformal mapping

If these shapes are so aerodynamic, why arent race cars shaped this way????

Induced Drag
Equal to horizontal component of lift
Therefore increases with AoA

Actually caused by the wing tip vortex discussed earlier Reduced with use of a high AR wing Can be reduced with the use winglets

Tradeoff: Skin Friction vs Form

Turbulators: prevent the B.L. from separating Increases skin friction Decreases form drag For slow aircraft; tradeoff is beneficial Found on sea animals, new swim suits, and golf balls

Turbulator Examples

Aircraft Stability
Static Stability: When disturbed, the aircraft returns to original flight path
Longitudinal, Lateral, Roll

Dynamic Stability: Returns to original flight path without excessive oscillation

Longitudinal Stability
Longitudinal Stability: Locate the Neutral Point behind CG Creates a correcting moment To move the Neutral Point backwards, increase the horizontal tail area

Lateral Stability
Largely depends upon tail size CLA: Center of lateral area Size tail to locate the CLA 25-28% of tail length behind the CG Prevents Spiral Instability
Side gust rotates plane One wing speeds up Creates more lift

Directional Stability
Also depends upon tail size and CLA A high wing adds stability
The plain acts like a pendulum Naturally returns to stable position

Aircraft Control
Longitudinal, Lateral, and Directional Control surfaces generate forces These forces create moments that rotate the plane Proper location and sizing results in excellent control Stall must always be considered
Ailerons are located at the wing tips

KSU Aero Design Team 2005 Ft. Worth, Texas

3rd Place