Principles of Flight Pt. 1 Flashcards
What are the five major parts of an aircraft?
Wing, Fuselage, Powerplant, Landing Gear, Empennage
This is the aircraft’s main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo or cockpit
Fuselage
This generates the most lift.
Wing
What are the two control surfaces on a wing?
Ailerons and flaps
Give the formula for aspect ratio
Aspect Ratio = wingspan/ wing chord or average chord
What are the different wing designs? Explain what they look like and why they are designed that way
Wing sweep Design : a. Straight b. Swept Back
Planform Design: a. Constant b. Tapered
This consists of the vertical and horizontal stabilizer and acts as feathers of an arrow which helps keep the plane in a straight path
Empennage
What do you use the rudder in combination with in order to create a coordinated path?
Ailerons
This is combination of elevator and stabilizer
Stabilator
This is controlled by the control wheel (yoke) through a system of cables, pulleys and other connecting devises
Elevator
For the elevator, when you pull back on the yoke, the elevator and nose move _______? But when you push forward the elevator and nose move _______.
Up, Down
This consists of two main wheels found on either side of the fuselage and a third wheel positioned in either the front or rear of the airplane
Landing Gear
Two types of landing gear?
Fixed and retractable
Two different landing gears configurations
Conventional type (tailwheel) and tricycle type (nosewheel)
This provides thrust and includes the engine and the accessories attached to it, powers the propeller to give the airplane thrust
Powerplant
This acts as protection for passengers and mounting point of an engine
Firewall
The two types of aircraft engine?
- Gas Turbine Engine
- Reciprocating Engine
This is produced by the dynamic effect of air acting on the wing
Lift
This is the reason why we stay in the air
Lift
This is the forward force produced by the powerplant / propeller
Thrust
This is the combined load of the airplane itself, crew, fuel, cargo or baggage
Weight
A rearward, retarding force that causes the plane to slow down
Drag
What causes drag?
Caused by disruption of airflow by the wing, fuselage, and other protruding object
In normal unaccelerated flight, these four forces of flight are in what?
Equilibrium
What does Unaccelerated flight mean?
This means that the airplane is neither accelerating nor decelerating
What is the Engineer’s Formula?
L= Coefficient of lift x 1/2 density of air x velocity squared x wing surface area
What is the Pilot’s formula?
The higher the angle of attack, the lower your speed is and vice versa
This increase the rate of descent without increasing airspeed
Flaps
What are the two theories that explains how lift is created? State both
Newton’s third law of motion - For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction
Bernoulli’s Principle - As the velocity of a fluid increases, its internal pressure decreases
Explain what is the coanda effect
There is low pressure above the wing, meanwhile high pressure below the wing which causes air (fluid) to stay attached to the surface of the wing
What is a venturi tube
This is a short pipe with a constricted inner surface
This is any surface that provides aerodynamic force
Airfoil
Give the six anatomy of an airfoil
- Leading edge
- Trailing edge
- Chord
- Camber
- Angle of Attack
- Relative Wind
This is a part of an airfoil (edge) that hits the air particles first
Leading Edge
This is a part of an airfoil (edge) that hits the air particles last
Trailing Edge
This is a distance between the leading and trailing edges measured along the chord line
Chord
This is the curvature of an airfoil above and below the chord line surface
Camber
This is the angle at which the chord of an aircraft’s wing meets the relative wind
Angle of Attack
This is the direction of movement of the atmosphere relative to an aircraft
Relative Wind
This is the deflection of the oncoming airstream upward and over the wing
Upwash
Explain upwash in your own words (This is for practice purposes)
This is the deflection of the oncoming airstream upward and over the wing
This is the downward deflection of the airstream as it passes over the wing and past the trailing edge
Downwash
Explain downwash in your own words (This is for practice purposes)
This is the downward deflection of the airstream as it passes over the wing and past the trailing edge
As angle of attack increases, what happens to lift?
increases as well
This is the measure of lift as it relates to the angle of attack
Coefficient of Lift
What is the point of maximum lift called?
CL max
What is the maximum angle of attack?
17 degrees
What happens when the maximum lift coefficient is exceeded?
Lift decreases rapidly and the wing stalls
What are the four flaps steps and explain each
- No Flaps - for normal flight
- One flaps step - for take-off, when you want to gain altitude while flying slowly. or during runway
approach while flying at constant altitude - Two flaps step - to brake the plane, in order to lose altitude quickly, for example when you dive towards the runway to land
- Three flaps step- to lose altitude even more quickly
This type of flap extends from the fuselage to the aileron on each wing. The flaps are controlled and actuated electrically. Rotates on a hinge.
Plain flap
This flap has the upper surface immobile while the lower surface operates like a plain flap
Split flap
This has a slot or gap between the flap and the wing enables high pressure air from below the wing to re-energize the boundary layer over the flap.
Slotted flap
What does the gap in a slotted flap do?
It helps the airflow to stay attached to the flap, delaying the stall
This slides backward before hinging downwards, thereby increasing both camber and chord, creating a larger wing surface better tuned for lower speeds.
Fowler Flap
The primary purpose of this is to allow the aircraft to fly at a higher angle of attack before reaching the stalling angle
Fixed slots
These are portions of the leading edge which are moved forward and down to create a path for air similar to a slot. Also provides lift as well as delaying airflow separation
Slats
This is the point along the aircraft where it could balance if suspended
Center of Gravity
This is the load the wings are supporting divided by the total weight of the plane
Load factor
What is the unit used to measure acceleration?
G
This enables an aircraft to overcome drag
Thrust
What needs to happen in order to maintain straight and level speed?
Thrust must equal drag
This is the resistance to the forward motion directly opposed to thrust
Drag
The lower the drag, the lower the thrust required to counteract it. True or false?
True
What are the two types of drag?
Induced and Parasite
This is the result of an airfoil developing lift.
Induced Drag
As airspeed decreases, what happens to induced drag?
Increases
This is a type of aerodynamic drag that acts on any object when the object is moving through a fluid
Parasite Drag
What are the three types of parasite drag?
a. Skin friction drag
b. Form drag
c. Interference drag
This pertains to the air flowing over the bottom surface tends to flow outward as well as rearward.
Wing tip vortices
This pertains to the hazardous trail of wingtip vortices behind an airplane
Wake Turbulence
Explain what “Heavy, Clean, Slow” means
Heavy - Higher weight, larger aircrafts
Clean - In take-off configuration
Slow - High angle of attack attitude
This is the result of the interference of the surface of the earth with the airflow patterns about an airplane
Ground Effect
Explain what a stall is and how it happens
An aircraft stall results from a rapid decrease in lift caused by the separation of airflow from the wing’s surface brought on by exceeding the critical AOA.
In a stall, the wing does not totally stop producing lift. Rather, it cannot generate adequate lift to sustain level flight.
Since the coefficient of lift increases with an increase in AOA, at some point the coefficient peaks and then begins to drop off so, the amount of lift the wing produces drops dramatically after exceeding the coefficient of lift or critical AOA.
This is the aerodynamic resistance due to the contact of moving air with the surface of an aircraft
Skin Friction Drag
The air flowing around the fuselage collides with air flowing over the wing, merging into a current of air different from the two original currents.
Interference Drag
This is used to reduce the tendency of interference drag
Fairings
This comes from the intersection of airstreams that creates eddy currents (like whirlpools, turbulence, or restricts smooth airflow.
Interference Drag
This is the portion of parasite drag generated by the aircraft due to its shape and airflow around it
Form Drag
Explain how Wingtip Vortices occur
As the air curls upward around the tip, it combines with the downwash to form a fast-spinning trailing vortex - these vortices increase drag. Whenever an airfoil is producing lift, induced drag occurs and wingtip vortices are created.
