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It depends on the angle of attack. The design case of the bell shaped lift distribution is maximum lift. At cruise, angle of attack is lower, lowering the lift coefficient for the whole wing and also …

Only if you somehow manage to reduce friction. This could be achieved by using a gas with a significantly lower viscosity than air. As long as a sufficiently thick film is maintained, it will produce …

The lower one is better. Details depend on the camber. A flat plate or a symmetric airfoil have their center of pressure at the quarter chord point. Angle of attack changes change the lift produced, b …

No, that thinking is incorrect. The air involved in lift creation is roughly the amount that flows through a disk with a diameter equalling wing span, and your distributed propulsion concept will invo …

The aircraft needs flaps in order to be slow enough for take-off and landing. This means the lift coefficient $c_l$ is larger in the landing configuration, and the dynamic pressure is proportionally l …

To answer your second question first: Generally, it is always better to accelerate a big amount of air a little than a small amount a lot. Therefore, the helicopter rotor is much more efficient when …

We looked at how tight a turn a Boeing 747 can make in this question. The answer gave a radius of just 6.11 km. Your contrail photo clearly shows that the airplane has either one or two fuselage-moun …

How about all lighter-than-air vehicles: Hot air balloons Hydrogen- or helium-filled balloons Airships If you want to restrict the choice to heavier-than-air vehicles, rockets should still qualify …

Short answer: No. Long answer: The stall angle of attack varies with speed, altitude, Mach number and the rate of angle of attack increase, as discussed here and here. Since the lift curve slope of a …

First, you need to add the effect of density $\rho$: Air density changes with altitude, and this affects both lift and drag (at least if you model airbreathing engines). For lift $L$, use $$L = c_L\c …

The phenomenon is called trimming. This is the process by which the pilot adjusts the lift at the tail surface to shift the center of pressure right above or below the center of gravity and removes a …

If you add wind (a gust), the sought-after situation would be flying into a vertical gust. If the vertical wind speed changes linearly with the distance flown and the aircraft has sufficient inertia a …

You assume that three of the four forces are constant. This is not quite right: Only the mass is given, all the other forces are variable. Thrust $T$: Changes with throttle setting. Also, thrust can …

The accepted answer is wrong. Triplanes have all the disadvantages of biplanes, only more so. But they share their advantages as well, and the main reason to build them in WW I was roll maneuverabili …

First, I have to define what the critical angle of attack is: When an aerodynamicist speaks of critical conditions, he or she means the condition when the speed of sound is reached locally. The criti …