Aeronautical Freak

Wings on a plane

2015-03-01T10:17:00.001-08:00

Airbus A350

Here we are with another post! Today we we'll talk about the wings of an aircraft a little bit!

The wing is the part of the aircraft which has to lift the aircraft. This fin produces what we call aerodynamic force for flight. Also is the main generator of drag. The aerodynamic force is generated by an air pressure difference between the upper part of the wing and the lower part. The upper part has a lower pressure than the lower part, this leads to an upward force that must counteract the weight of the aircraft and the drag.

Low Pressure in a wing

In subsonic aircraft the wings have to have a longer path in the upper side than the bottom side to generate lift. This generates what we said before, a pressure difference between. In supersonic aircraft the wings are symmetrical. They generate lift by deflecting the air downwards with a given angle of attack. They are used in aerobatic planes to have better performance when the aircraft is upwards.

Lockheed-Martin F16. Straight and inverted flight

The Fuselage of an aircraft

2015-02-14T05:19:00.000-08:00

Boeing 787 Dreamliner

As we said in our previous post, we start explaining a little more about those parts of the aircraft in this posts we will talk about the main part of the aircraft: the fuselage.

The fuselage, shown in brown colour.

The fuselage as you know it's the part of the aircraft which holds the passengers or cargo, or both at the same time. The weight of this part is very important, The centre of gravity of an aircraft must be carefully analysed and studied. The centre of gravity is the point of reference from which an aircraft rotates laterally or vertically.

The shape of the fuselage is determined by the type of the aircraft: a supersonic aircraft will not have the same fuselage shape as a commercial plane. The supersonic ones have a slender body to avoid the drag created by the fuselage on high speeds.

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird (Supersonic Mach +3)

One of Lufthansa's' Airbus A320

The fuselage (in commercial aircraft) is mainly divided in three different parts: the fuselage cockpit, the centre fuselage and rear fuselage.

In the cockpit is where the aircraft is controlled by the pilots. It is full of buttons, handlers and screens: they give the pilots information about what is happening in the moment on the aircraft. Most modern cockpits are enclosed after the September, 11 attacks, to avoid hijacking of the aircraft.

A320 Cockpit area, you can see the 2 sticks of flight on the laterals.

In the rear of the fuselage we usually find the vertical and horizontal stabilizer. The horizontal stabilizer is a fixed part of the aircraft that avoids it to rotate up and down. A part of the horizontal stabilizer can be moved and is called elevator and it's the responsible of the position of the nose of the aircraft: pitching (up or down). It rotates along the centre of gravity as we said before. Here is a beautiful GIF that shows how it works:

The vertical stabiliser is also a fixed part of the aircraft that gives stabilization so it can keep a straight flight. In the vertical stabiliser there is a part that can be moved and is called the rudder. It is used to move the position of the nose: yaw (right or left). Also as the elevator, it rotates along the centre of gravity. Another beautiful GIF:

Old aircraft were crafted with wood when time passed and monoplanes became popular they started to move to metal assembly that improved strength and better manoeuvrability. Nowadays, the modern aircraft are made by Composite materials. There are still plenty of aircraft that use aluminium assembly crafting.

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Maybe you didn't see the last post?

What Is An Aircraft?

What is an aircraft?

2015-02-10T04:57:00.001-08:00

We start this blog with this must-have understanding of what is an aircraft!

First of all we need to get used to the vocabulary and parts of a plane, let's see this image:

We have different parts in this image let's start with the easy one the fuselage, it's the main part of a plane. It's the part which can hold passengers or cargo or both of them.

We have wings they are the cause of flight of the plane: it produces vertical aerodynamic force so a plane can fly. We will see in another post all the little parts of what these wings are made of and what are their parts. In the rear part of the plane we have the vertical and horizontal stabilizers, as of their name they give stability in the vertical and horizontal planes.

Below the wings, generally, we have the engines. It is used to give propulsion to the aircraft, they are basicly two types of engines, piston engines and gas turbines:

Piston engines

Gas Turbine Engines

These are the main parts of an aircraft, without one of this main components the aircraft turns out to be not flyable or unstable. In the next posts we will talk more deeply on the main components, their functions and use.

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