New answers tagged aircraft-physics
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What happens to the pressure differential of airflow under and over the wing as the critical angle of attack is reached?
Look up the video"why birds don't have vertical tails"
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Do airliners respond to mild turbulence in real time?
That is, if the plane moved to the left, it was (in second to sub-second time) accompanied by a sensation of moving to the right. It's the same for up and down.
Human perception is a bit strange. ...
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Do airliners respond to mild turbulence in real time?
I suspect you were flying on an aircraft with a gust/load alleviation system such as the Boeing 787, Airbus A350 or A380.
In these aircraft, accelerations due to turbulence are measured in the wing ...
- 81.8k
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Do airliners respond to mild turbulence in real time?
Completing Ralph's answer.
Stability by design
Transport aircraft are inherently stable, they are designed with a positive static stability, meaning they tend to automatically correct for variations ...
- 69.7k
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Do airliners respond to mild turbulence in real time?
When the autopilot is engaged, which is typical during cruise flight, it's working to hold the wings level and maintain the desired pitch most of the time (a programmed turn or climb/descent to follow ...
- 48.5k
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Why do newer engines have such wide fan blades?
I would prefer an intuitive explanation rather than a deep mathematical dive
No equations, I promise! 😉
long, thin wings are more efficient than wide stubby ones
Correct. Simplifying to the ...
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Why do newer engines have such wide fan blades?
Fan blade evolution
The historical fan blade had the same form as a compressor blade,
Figure 3 and 4. The weight of the solid titanium blade stopped a wider
cord design. The long and slender shape ...
- 2,765
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Why do newer engines have such wide fan blades?
Long, slender wings impart a small momentum change to a large volume of air. Short, stubby wings impart a large momentum change to a small volume of sir. Small momentum changes generate less ...
- 20.4k
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Why do newer engines have such wide fan blades?
The improvement in efficiency has two roots:
Higher turbine pressure ratios. While the very early turbojets managed just 3.14:1, the most recent civil turbofans run at 50:1.
Higher bypass ratios. The ...
- 228k
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Why do newer engines have such wide fan blades?
Gliders utilize the long, short span wing design to achieve high efficiency as you described. This design enables them to accelerate the necessary mass of air downwards with the least amount of ...
- 26.8k
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Flying upside down without feeling it
I guess it means the pilot managed to provide a net 1 g of
acceleration upwards, so the body and any other object experienced the
usual head-to-toe force.
But to achieve that (1G) acceleration it ...
- 21.4k
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Flying upside down without feeling it
Peter Kämpf has the right idea here. It sounds very much like the pilot is doing positive G or so-called “Gentlemen’s aerobatics”. Aileron rolls, barrel rolls, and even some variants of inside loops ...
- 71.9k
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Flying upside down without feeling it
This sounds like a barrel roll.
This is a corkscrew-like flight path in which the airplane rotates around an axis between its longitudinal and pitch axes by flying along a path which lies on the ...
- 228k
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