@Aeronautics

 Structure of an Airplane At the end of this block of study, you should be able to:     Label the parts of an airplane.     Describe the five types of stress which act on an aircraft in flight and give an example of   where each applies to an airplane.   Describe both truss and semimonocoque types of fuselages.     Describe the basic structure of a wing.     Explain the structure and function of the empennage.     Identify the three types of landing gear.  Most aircraft are composed of the fuselage (body), wings, empennage (tail assembly), landing gear, and power plant (see figure 1-1). Locate these parts in the diagram as they are discussed. Sections in this Chapter: Section 1.1 - THE FUSELAGE STRUCTURE Section 1.2 -  WINGS Section 1.3 -  EMPENNAGE Section 1.4 -  LANDING GEAR Section 1.5 -  POWER PLANT Section 1.6 -  REVIEW EXERCISE ...

 Power Plant    The power plant may be an engine and propeller combination or a jet engine. The most commonly used power plant in personal aircraft is the gasoline engine, which will be studied in detail later in this chapter. It is mounted in position against a fire wall in the front section of the airplane. The fire wall provides separation of the power plant from the remainder of the fuselage. The engine cowling is the metal covering which encases the engine and its accessories, streamlining the plane and conducting air around the engine cylinders for cooling. Because the action of the pistons is an up-and-down movement, this engine is called a reciprocating engine or a piston engine. In multiengine aircraft, the engines are usually mounted on the leading edges of the wings.   The jet engine gives the airplane a thrust (push forward) because of the jet exhaust gas coming out of the back of the engine. The moving part of this engine is a turbi...

 Landing Gear    Airplanes require landing gear for taxiing, takeoff, and landing. The earliest airplane of all--the Wright  Flyer --used skids as its landing gear. Soon, wheels were attached to the skids. Since that time, various arrangements have been used for wheels and structures to connect them to the airplane. Today, there are  three common types of landing gear: conventional, tricycle, and tandem  (see figure 1-8).     Conventional landing gear  consists of two wheels forward of the aircraft's center of gravity and a third small wheel at the tail. This type of landing gear is most often seen in older general aviation airplanes. The two main wheels are fastened to the fuselage by struts. Without a wheel at the nose of the plane, it easily pitches over if brakes are applied too soon. Because the tailwheel is castered--free to move in any direction--the plane is very difficult to control when landing or taking of...

Empennage     The empennage, commonly called the tail assembly (see figure 1-7), is the rear section of the body of the airplane. Its main purpose is to give stability to the aircraft.  The fixed parts are the horizontal stabilizer and the vertical stabilizer or fin. The front, fixed section is called the  horizontal stabilizer  and is used to p revent the airplane from pitching up or down .   The rear section is called the  elevator  and is usually hinged to the horizontal stabilizer. The elevator is a movable airfoil that  controls the up-and-down motion of the aircraft's nose.    The vertical tail structure is divided into the  vertical stabilizer and the rudder . The front section is called the  vertical stabilizer and is used to prevent the aircraft from yawing back and forth .  The principle behind its operation is much like the principle of a deep keel on a sailboat. In ligh...

 The Wings    Wing construction is basically the same in all types of aircraft. Most modern aircraft have all metal wings, but many older aircraft had wood and fabric wings. Ailerons and flaps will be studied later in this chapter.  To maintain its all-important aerodynamic shape, a wing must be designed and built to hold its shape even under extreme stress.  Basically, the wing is a framework composed chiefly of spars, ribs, and (possibly) stringers  (see figure 1-5). Spars are the main members of the wing. They extend lengthwise of the wing (crosswise of the fuselage). All the load carried by the wing is ultimately taken by the spars. In flight, the force of the air acts against the skin. From the skin, this force is transmitted to the ribs and then to the spars.    Most wing structures have two spars, the front spar and the rear spar. The front spar is found near the leading edge while the rear spar is about two-t...

The Fuselage Structure    The word  fuselage  is based on the French word fuseler, which means "to streamline." The fuselage must be strong and streamlined since it must withstand the forces that are created in flight. It houses the flight crew, passengers, and cargo.    Fuselages are classified according to the arrangement of their force-resisting structure. The types of fuselages we will study are the truss and the semimonocoque. Five types of stress act on an aircraft in flight: tension, compression, bending, shear, and torsion. Let's look at each one individually (see animation or figures 1-2, to see the animation press on the icon or the figure). Tension    Tension is the stress which tends to pull things apart.  When you try to break a length of rope, you exert a type of stress which is called tension. (see animation or figure 1-2a) Compression     Compression...

Why does NASA study aeronautics? NASA scientists and engineers work together with other researchers from several universities and aerospace companies to learn how to design better airplanes. What does this mean to the general public? Improved or more modern airplanes are easier to maintain, cost less to operate (which means a cheaper ticket for the passengers aboard), are safer to fly, and are better for the environment. NASA focuses on several areas including weather-related safety, aging airplanes, advanced structures and engines for airplane design, air traffic control, helicopters, airport and supersonic engine noise reduction, turbulence prediction, and the human factor.      For any query comment your question here and for contect me mail me at  faiyazpatel555@gmail.com.          My other blogs Or read more at: Bing Human Hacking tips For bloggers Flow of my life  

What forces act on an airplane? There are four forces acting on an airplane in flight:  lift ,  weight ,  thrust  and  drag . We already know that lift comes from the wings. What about the other forces? Weight is a force caused by  gravity . You've felt gravity every time you jump. Gravity is what pulls you and everything else back down to the ground. This "pulling down" by gravity is what causes you to have a "weight" that you measure when you step on a bathroom scale. An airplane's weight also pulls downward on it - directly opposite to the lift force that is pulling the airplane up. It's like the lift and weight forces are playing a game of tug-of-war. One pulls in one direction and the other pulls in the opposite direction. For level flight, lift and weight must balance each other out. Thrust, caused by the airplane's engines, is the force that moves the airplane forward. If an airplane did not keep moving, air would stop mov...

What are the different types of airplanes? You may be wondering why there are so many different types of airplanes out there. What makes them different from each other? We'll take a quick look at what makes each of the following airplanes unique: Cargo/Transport Airplanes Experimental Concept Airplanes Fighter/Military Airplanes Passenger Airplanes Cargo/Transport Airplanes Cargo/transport airplanes have a lot of room inside them to carry things that would ordinarily be too large or too heavy to carry on other types of airplanes. Sometimes these planes carry trucks, packages, construction equipment, or even other airplanes! Since cargo/transport airplanes are so big they usually have large, powerful engines to help get themselves off the ground. Because of their large cargo bays, a few of these planes are a little unusual-looking. It's no wonder that the "Guppy" and the "Beluga" are named that way - they look like huge fish! Sometimes p...

How does an airplane fly? Most of us have probably seen or felt wind blowing things like flags or kites around. But how is it possible that heavy airplanes (some weighing almost half a million pounds, or more than 200,000 kilograms) are able to be supported by air high above the ground? The answer may sound strange at first, but it's actually the  air  that is pushing the airplane's wings and the rest of it up. The air  under  the wings pushes  up  more than the air on  top  of the wings pushes  down . This "pushing" by the air is called air  pressure . We can think of air pressure as air "press"-ing down or up against something else. On a windy day, you can actually feel the air pressure push against your body. The wings of an airplane "feel" a similar pushing, but there happens to be a  bigger pressure under the wings and a smaller pressure on the top . What's really amazing is  why  this happens...