About forty years before the American revolution, a Swiss scientist Daniel Bernoulli, discovered that in any moving fluid
the pressure is lowest where the speed of the air above a surface such as a wing, pressure should decrease. The wing rise. The wing of an airplane is somehow shape like a Bow – the upper surface is curved while the lower part is straight. Since the air has to travel a greater distance over the top part of the wing. It must travel at a greater speed. As a result the pressure is lower above the wing rises, or lifts into the air. Engineer are constantly improving the shape of the airplane wings for greater lift. Most airplane wings are metal. They have a skeleton of lengthwise spars and crosswise ribs. The skeleton has a thin covering, usually of an aluminum. An airplane wing has a root tip, leading edge. The root is part of the wing attached to the fuselage. The leading edge is the curved front edge of the wing. On most airplane, the wing tips is slightly higher than the wing roots. Most airplane also has a low wing design. Many high speed airplanes, especially jets have swept-back wing. Such wings slant backward from the root to the tip. Most airplane wings has movable control surfaces that help balance the plane in flight. ‘Harold Joseph Highland, Airplanes and the story of Flight, New York Grosset and Dunlop publishers. p. 25’ The Parts of an Airplane The wing of the airplane extend outward from each side of the body. A wing has a nearly flat bottom and curved top. The fuselage (body) of an airplane extends from the nose to the tail. Most airplane bodies have a tub-like shape and are covered with a lightweight aluminum skin. The engine of most single-engine plane is located in the front part of the body. The tail assembly is the rear part of an airplane, it helps guide the plane and keep it balanced in flight. Most tail assemblies consist of a vertical fin. The landing gear consist of the wheels or floats upon which an airplane moves on the ground or water. The landing gear also support the weight of a plane on the ground or water. The controls and instruments. Inside the cockpit, the pilot has a variety of controls, instruments and navigation on aids. Most plane has have a yoke (control wheel) that operates the elevator. A few special type of
planes. Propeller or airscrews move turboprop planes and planes with reciprocating engines through the air. On most such plane, each propeller has its own engine. Highways of the Air There are thousand of airports of many different kinds throughout the world. In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), classifies the airports, according to the runways. An airport with a runway of 1,500 to 2,300 feet is classified as a personal airport and is used only by small, light, private planes airport, where large passenger airliners can land and take off must have a run way of 6.000 to 7,000 feet. To meet the needs of today’s large jetliners, some airports have runways of about 10.000 feet or more or about two miles. What are the
Airways? In the air bet the airport are airways or roads, though the sky along which the planes travel, because of the many planes flying overhead, both during the days and night, it is necessary to set up rules for the roads just as have traffic rules for the cars on the streets. Except, when taking off or landing, airplane must fly 500 feet above the ground over cities and other congested areas. Parts of an airplane control is turn to the right and left. The ruddier, a vertical surface that is hinged to the tail, swings the tail to the right or left, just in the same way as a section of the tail swings up or down. On the ground it is use to make the plane turn just a ruddier of the boat. In the air, however, the major purpose of the ruddier is not to make the plane turn, but to assist the plane in entering and recovering form a turn. A propeller slices through the air just as the same way that a screw cuts into wood, and pulls the plane forward. This forward motion of the propeller is called thrust. It counteracts the drag of the atmosphere. The force that resist forward motion. Equally important is the elevator which control the planes upward and downward movement. It is a horizontal, hinged surface attach to the tail.