Aerodynamics Of Planes

Aerodynamics Of Planes Ever since I was little I was amazed at the ability for a machine to fly. I have always wanted to explore ideas of flight and be able to actually fly. I think I may have found my childhood fantasy in the world of aeronautical engineering. The object of my paper is to give me more insight on my future career as an aeronautical engineer. This paper was also to give me ideas of the physics of flight and be to apply those physics of flight to compete in a high school competition.History of Flight The history of flying dates back as early as the fifteenth century.

A Renaissance man named Leonardo da Vinci introduced a flying machine known as the ornithopter. Da Vinci proposed the idea of a machine that had bird like flying capabilities. Today no ornithopters exist due to the restrictions of humans, and that the ornithopters just aren't practical. During the eighteenth century a philosopher named Sir George Cayley had practical ideas of modern aircraft.

Cayley never really designed any workable aircraft, but had many incredible ideas such as lift, thrust, and rigid wings to provide for lift.In the late nineteenth century the progress of aircraft picks up. Several designers such as Henson and Langley, both paved the way for the early 1900's aircraft design. Two of the most important people in history of flight were the Wright Brothers. The Wright Brothers were given the nickname the "fathers of the heavier than air flying machine" for their numerous flights at their estate in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Orville and Wilbur Wright created a motor-powered biplane in which they established incredible feats of the time.The Wright Brothers perfected their design of the heavier than air flying machine, and eventually sold their idea to the U.S. military.

The airplane does not become important until the end of World War I. Towards the end of the War the airplane becomes a practical device of war being able to carry weapons. Anthony Fokker and Louis Bleriot create the most successful of early modern biplanes known as the D-VII and D-VIII.Biplanes are eventually taken over by the monoplane, or one wing. This new design allowed for faster flight and better visibility for the pilot.

Air-cooled engines lead the way for commercial aircraft, and Boeing introduces the first modern airliner the 247. Airplanes are effected the greatest by supply and demand of war. New styles of war begun to emerge so did new and improved types of aircraft. The population of the U.S.

also begun to grow which leads to the modern most sophisticated commercial airliner the 777. Most aircraft improvements are found in the military and intelligence field. The most high tech aircraft known today for such things as spying are the SR-71 Blackbird, and the U-2 Spy plane. The most complicated and best aircraft performance is still held by the space shuttle and probably always will be. The last 200 years have seen incredible changes in aircraft from the man with wings to heavier than air flying machines that can travel at supersonic speeds.

Lift Every single part of an aircraft is incredibly important, without a piece of the airplane it just wouldn't fly. If there had to be a most important part of the aircraft, it would mostly likely have to be the wing. The wing allows a heavier than air (unlike hot air balloons) machine to fly. The principle that allows a heavier than air machine to fly is the principle of Bernoulli. Daniel Bernoulli came up with idea using water tests that low pressure over high pressure would cause something to rise, or lift.Bernoulli had no idea of the effect it would have on a flying machine.

Bernoulli died in 1782 and the first airplane wasn't even designed until the late 1800's. Bernoulli had never seen his application of water pressure, but his principle became the basic principle behind all heavier than air machines. Several aspects of a wing are necessary for flight. The wing must have a long enough span that the lift will counter act the force of gravity.The wing must be shaped in a foil design so that it produces lots of lift and less drag.

There are many different shapes of wings, and foil designs all serving different purposes. The most commonly used foil design is a wing with a flat bottom and the top must be curved upward more drastically towards the front and sloping down to a point towards the end (a diagram of a foil design is shown in page 10). Drag Another important aspect of flight is the opposite of forward motion called drag. Drag can be seen in almost everyday life.An example of drag would be swimming in a pool. As you dive in the water the water must displace around you therefore causing two kinds of friction and slowing you down.

The two types of drag friction that aircraft deal with are pressure drag and skin friction drag. An example of pressure drag is the air that hits the frontal part of the wing, or the most forward flat part of the wing and causes the plane to slow down. An example of skin friction is the actual air moving over the wing and being slowed down by the skin of the wing.There are a few other types of drag called induced drag.

Induced drag basically means that drag caused by lift. Since the plane moves upward during lift the plane also has to displace air above the wing. Another type of induced drag is the drag caused by the wing tips. As the aircraft lifts off the ground air wants to move onto the top of the wing rather than stay on the bottom (equalize pressure).

The wing tips actually allow the air on the bottom of the wing to travel to the top in a sideward motion or around the wing tip. When this happens the air from the bottom of the wing pushes down on the wing forcing the airplane to want to go down. "The only way to eliminate wing tip drag is to have a wing of infinite size, which is impossible because lift would not be effective (Smith 77)." All of the different kinds of drag play a great role in the designing of the aircraft, and its efficiency.

Drag has its biggest effect on the fuselage, or the body of the aircraft because of its large size. Since all types of aircraft have mass it is impossible to eliminate all drag; therefore aircraft must be designed to use drag to their advantage, or be efficient enough that lift over powers drag. Thrust Another extremely important element in flight is thrust.For flight to ever occur there must be some kind of initial force to forc ...