Questions tagged [aircraft-design]
Questions about the different choices that aircraft designers (typically aerospace engineers) make in order to create an aircraft.
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What is this gas during taxi? [duplicate]
The other day I was on an A321 when I noticed a condensed gas coming out of the portion I circled on the image here:
I've seen it happen several times but never understood the reason behind it. Can ...
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Do carbon fiber wings need a wing spar?
Considering the structural strength advantages of carbon fiber vs aluminum, would a carbon fiber wing need a wing spar?
I've seen some examples of some carbon fiber wings using some honey comb ...
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Are there carbon fiber wing spar pins?
Thinking about parts and weight saving, I've never seen a pin made of carbon fiber, is there such a thing for the aviation industry?
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Are helicopters required a higher drop/impact test than airplanes?
Considering an airplane and a helicopter both with similar weight and number of seats and both to be certified in the same category.
Are helicopters required a higher standard than airplanes due to ...
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The feasibility of using wind turbines to construct a giant quadcopter
I'm not looking for a definitive yes/no answer here so much as an illustration of the calculation with some fairly reasonable assumptions and references to relevant and useful data.
My assumptions are:...
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STOL AIRCRAFT in Flight [closed]
Aviators here is a question. Can you land a "STOL" aircraft in a "C5A Galaxy" while both are flying?
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Is the front wheel supposed to turn 360 degrees?
Came across this youtube video where a tug does a 180 degrees turn while towing a gulfstream and then at minute 00:50 adds 180 degrees more to complete a 360.
If you notice closely the wheel actually ...
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Purpose of Reflex in Flying Wing Aircraft
I want to design a small RC flying wing aircraft and I am struggling to understand the purpose of reflexed airfoils.
From my understanding, for longitudinal stability, the purpose of the tail on a ...
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How are individual spool optimal speeds determined in 3-spool engines like Trent 700/800?
I can see that in a 3-spool engine, the low pressure turbine and the fan have the lowest speed; The intermediate pressure turbine and the intermediate pressure compressor have another speed, and the ...
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Why do commercial jets fly so high? [duplicate]
Everyone ever heard of a plane knows they usually go quite high into the atmosphere. To my knowledge, this is to help the plane go faster in low atmospheric densities and reduce aerodynamic drag. But ...
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How do I place wings on a fuselage for testing?
so I am researching the effects of wing geometry and anhedral angle on RDWs in ground effect using CFD. So far the research articles/papers I've read only test the wing without the fuselage as seen in ...
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Which aircraft has the simplest folding wing mechanism?
From all the different folding wing mechanisms, which airplane has one of the simplest / easiest mechanisms?
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Whats the purpose of slots in wings? [duplicate]
As mentioned by the person in this video, what's purpose of the slots in this Ray Stits Sky Baby airplane?
(source)
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What's the airplane with the smallest ratio of wingspan to fuselage width?
I want to know (preferably within the General Aviation category) which airplane has the smallest wingspan compared to its fuselage width.
(I'm curious of the performance of such an airplane)
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Looking for a way to search through airfoils based on Cl/Cd at a specific angle of attack
I'm working on a university project to design a wing that has a high Cl/Cd value when placed in a wind tunnel at an angle of attack of 6 degrees and a windspeed of 25m/s.
So far I've been using ...
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Is the centripetal acceleration when an aircraft turns related only to the load factor?
My question is about aircraft load factor and how it relates to turning ability.
I've recently come across this chart for the F-16 that shows the turn rate in degrees per second and the load factor ...
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Are flap track fairings (just the appendages themselves) necessary for wing aerodynamics?
Coming from this answer by Peter Kämpf leaving me a little perplexed about the necessity of flap track fairings. without flap tracks, would we still need them on the wing of any given sub/transonic ...
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Why don't jet fighters have fans?
Why don't jet fighters have fans in front? They only have a hole to suck air? I assume the compressor sucks the air. Is that enough?
See from picture below, this is an F-16 jet fighter. There is no ...
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Are There Any Recomendation of Aircraft Design Books Written By Russian Author? [closed]
I've read many aircraft design books, such as the one written by Roskam (Vol 1-8), Raymer, and Torenbeek. I'm curious if there any aircraft design book written by any Russian author, which may they've ...
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Is there any airplane that doesn't use a headset but speakers?
I wonder if there is any aircraft that is quiet enough that allows talking/listening via speakers?
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Could Swashplate be replaced with small electric motors?
In helicopters, the swashplate is used to control the pitch of the blades. Could a set of electric motors, each placed at the root of each blade, be used to control the pitch instead? Has this method ...
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How flexible are small airplanes wings compared to airliners?
When talking about flexible wings, it always comes to mind big airliners like the 787 or the A350.
But knowing that flexible wings help reduce the flight bumpiness and small airplanes are known for ...
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Did Concordes have de-icing boots?
Concordes were a supersonic passenger aircraft of which only 20 were built from 1965 to 1979 and were retired in 2003 for expense reasons and non-fuel efficiency. The plane was placed into regular ...
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Is washout a twist up at the root or a twist down at the tip of the wing?
Does washout/in take place at the root of the wing or the tip? And is the twist distributed evenly along the wing, or is it only twisted for a portion and level for the rest, specifically in ...
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Why aren't we using forward swept wings in commercial airliners? [closed]
What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing so.
Is there any practical problem in execution?
Provide some experiments for examples.
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How to make an airplane less bumpy?
Other than the weight (which to my understanding is the number one factor i.e. a heavier airplane will fly more smoothly than a light airplane), which factors of the airplane design make an airplane ...
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Which civil aircraft use fly-by-wire without mechanical backup?
Though almost the whole Airbus 3XX family uses fly-by-wire technology, it also has mechanical link/manual backup for the rudder/elevator trim as explained here.
On the military though, my ...
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Why aircraft don't have integrated scale? [duplicate]
There have been some accidents due to wrong weight calculations that ended in fatalities, both in comercial and private aviation.
Besides this, though it is a simple task on the pilot's flight check ...
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What type of airfoil should be used for horizontal tailplanes?
Don't aircraft use symmetrical tailplanes so as to not produce lifting forces when not needed? Im confused by people saying that they use upside-down cambered airfoils.
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What's the optimal taper ratio for a commerical short/medium haul aircraft?
I'm designing an R/C plane with interchangeable winglets and I've so far calculated the taper ratio to be .246 (aspect ratio 9.5 if that helps). I'm taking some design/geometry cues from the A320. How ...
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What is the purpose of pipes that are sticking out of the Boeing 747 FWD Cargo door?
I went to visit an Aviation museum recently and noticed these pipes that are sticking out of a Boeing 747 in the FWD Cargo bay...
What are these pipes called and what is the purpose of them?
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Why do Electric Aircraft Seem to Eschew Photovoltaics?
I work in climate policy so I'm always excited for things that could help me feel less guilty about being into aviation such as biojet and the progress being made in electric propulsion.
To date, ...
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B777-300 secure cockpit door flaps
B777-300 secure cockpit door has two flaps for rapid decompression pressure going from cockpit to cabin.
What system is used internally to release the flaps? Subsidiary question: can the system be ...
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Is a Tandem more efficient than a Biplane?
Considering both airplanes have 2 wings I wonder what are the pros and cons of each one and if a tandem design like the Quickie Q2 is more efficient than a biplane like the Steen SKYBOLT?
(wikipedia)
...
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Can tail wing increase and main wing decrease(so they're equal size) achieve same total lift?
Thinking that though is not happening every day, collisions with other planes wing during pushback/taxi occur here and there, and also that the wing size limits the parking/gate space specially for ...
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Does a longer wing produce same lift as a wider wing with the same total area?
Considering the image below, as shown, both wings have the same total area but with different
different measures.
Do they produce the same lift, or which wing produces more lift and which one makes ...
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What is the pole on the right side of the A4E Early?
I was playing War Thunder, and I wondered: what is the pole on the right side of the A4-E Early (picture source)?
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How to calculate wing deflection?
I can calculate deflection for a single beam, but I do not know how to calculate deflection for the whole wing section. I do not know how to calculate deflection for the two spars simultaneously.
I am ...
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Why do some GA aircraft need weights on the control surfaces?
Why do some GA aircraft need weights on the control surfaces?
I've noticed that the Varieze has weights on its canard(elevator), while the elevator on a Zenith CH650 does not.
What determines whether ...
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How to construct a mechanical adjustment for a horizontal trim tab before the mixer on a vtail?
How to construct a mechanical adjustment for horizontal trim tabs for a vtail for:
Torque tubes/push rods?
Bungees?
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What is the difference between a push rod and torque tube control system?
What is the difference between a push rod and a torque tube control system for actuating control surfaces on a GA aircraft?
A push rod sounds like it could replace a cable for elevators and rudder ...
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Why does the Neutral Point not vary with Tail incidence angle?
The neutral point is the position where if the CG were present, the aircraft would be statically neutral, ie., the moment about the CG would be constant with varying AoA.
Now, consider an aircraft ...
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Why do some GA aircraft use bungees or torque tubes vs. cables for control surface actuation?
Why do some GA aircraft use bungees or torque tubes vs cables for control surface actuation?
I understand using cables is the most common for GA aircraft.
I understand bungees are common in gliders ...
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Holding time during static structural testing of a composite wing
While doing a static structural testing of a composite wing (high aspect ratio or otherwise), is there an industry practice or standard that determines the holding time for which a load is applied ...
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Relation between Saab B3LA concept aircraft and AMX International
The Saab B3LA aircraft concept and the AMX aircraft were developed around the same time and out of similar requirements.
According to the Swedish Wikipedia:
The [B3LA] project was abandoned in 1979 ...
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How do the landing gear support so much mass?
The first thing that one notices after seeing an aircraft, is that it's quite a heavy flying machine. And so, one would expect monumental tires on these vehicles, yet they don't exist.
How is it that ...
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Do vtails need twin horizontal trim tabs?
Do vtails need twin horizontal trim tabs?
As vtail aircraft don't have a separate horizontal tail, do they need a trim tab on both rudervators?
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What's gonna be the physics behind building 'futuristic' airplanes? Use physics formulas or even theories to answer this question [closed]
After thinking about these 'futuristic' airplanes, I wonder if there's any special physics theory or law behind them. I wonder how faster they can be, persevere more and fulfill the aviation's lover ...
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How to determine dihedral angle?
How to determine dihedral angle for a high
wing ga aircraft with 12' wing span?
While there are formulas for determining
size of the vertical and
horizontal tails, I have yet to find a simple
formula ...
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What is the size of a clam shell drag rudder compared to a conventional rudder?
What is the size of a clam shell drag rudder compared to a conventional rudder?
This is for a ga aircraft.
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