jstar@brl-tbd.ARPA (John J. Starkenberg ) (11/13/87)
In article <6812@ut-ngp.UUCP> marshek@ut-ngp.UUCP (MAt) writes: >I would like to start a minor group discussion on the external >control surfaces of planes, both military and civilian. >Wing: generates lift, usually at mid fuselage, could be delta. > planes with delta wings are usually high performance > planes, like the Mirage 2000. tail-less delta is not > too stable. Wings have several basic characteristics among which are: Sweep - angle between normal to leading edge and longitudinal axis important on transonic and supersonic aircraft Dihedral - angle between horizontal plane and wing plane >camber: changes sectional geometry of wing ??? causes what ?? Not quite right. Camber is the curvature of the mean chord line of an airfoil (section of a wing). Thus the term describes the geometry of the wing cross-section. Generally increasing camber increases lift and drag coefficients. An important feature is the increase in maximum lift coefficient which is experienced by the pilot as a decrease in stall speed. >Flaps: at trailing edge of wings close to fuselage. does what ???? Flaps are essentially devices for changing the effective camber of wings. Thus their function is described in the above discussion on camber. >aileron: ????? Ailerons are control surfaces which antisymetrically alter the effective camber of portions of the wings in order to induce the aircraft to roll. >stabilizer: ???? a brit term ? The horizontal tail section. Provides pitch stability. >elevator: ???? The elevator is the control surface on the horizontal tail which provides pitch control (again) by altering the effective camber of the tail section. ***************************************************************** * * * John Starkenberg - US Army Ballistic Research Laboratory * * former aeronautical engineer * * * *****************************************************************