Powered aircraft

A powered aircraft is an aircraft that uses onboard propulsion with

mechanical power generated by anaircraft engine of some kind.

Aircraft propulsion nearly always uses either a type of propeller, or a form of

jet propulsion. Other potential propulsion techniques such as ornithopters are
very rarely used.

Contents
An Airbus A320 powered aircraft
Methods of propulsion
Rotating aerofoils
Propeller aircraft
Rotorcraft
Jet propulsion
Jet aircraft
Rocket-powered aircraft
Ornithopter
Methods of powering lift
See also
References
External links

Methods of propulsion

Rotating aerofoils

Propeller aircraft
A propeller or airscrew comprises a set of small, wing-like aerofoil blades set
around a central hub which spins on an axis aligned in the direction of travel. The
blades are set at a pitch angle to the airflow, which may be fixed or variable, such
that spinning the propeller creates aerodynamic lift, orthrust, in a forward direction.

A tractor design mounts the propeller in front of the power source, while a pusher
design mounts it behind. Although the pusher design allows cleaner airflow over the
wing, tractor configuration is more common because it allows cleaner airflow to the
A turboprop-engined Tupolev Tu-95 propeller and provides a betterweight distribution.

Contra-rotating propellers have one propeller close behind another on the same axis,
but rotating in the opposite direction.

A variation on the propeller is to use many broad blades to create a fan. Such fans are usually surrounded by a ring-shaped fairing or
duct, as ducted fans.
Many kinds of power plant have been used to drive propellers.

The earliest designs usedman power to give dirigible balloons some degree of control, and go back to Jean-Pierre Blanchard in 1784.
Attempts to achieve heavier-than-air man-powered flight did not succeed fully untilPaul MacCready's Gossamer Condor in 1977.

The first powered flight of an aircraft was made in a steam-powered dirigible by

Henri Giffard in 1852. Attempts to marry a practical lightweight steam engine to a
practical fixed-wing airframe did not succeed until much later, by which time the
internal combustion engine was already dominant.

From the first controlled powered fixed-wing aircraft flight by the Wright brothers
until World War II, propellers turned by the internal combustion piston engine were
virtually the only type of propulsion system in use. The piston engine is still used in
the majority of smaller aircraft produced, since it is efficient at the lower altitudes
and slower speeds suited to propellers.
Gossamer Albatross, a human-
powered aircraft
Turbine engines need not be used as jets (see below), but may be geared to drive a
propeller in the form of a turboprop. Modern helicopters also typically use turbine
engines to power the rotor. Turbines provide more power for less weight than piston engines, and are better suited to small-to-
medium size aircraft or larger, slow-flying types. Some turboprop designs mount the propeller directly on an engine turbine shaft, and
are called propfans.

Other less common power sources include:

Electric motors, often linked to solar panels to create asolar-powered aircraft.

Rubber bands, wound many times to store energy , are mostly used for flying models.

Rotorcraft
Rotorcraft have spinning blades called a rotor which spins in the horizontal plane to provide lift. Forward thrust is usually obtained
by angling the rotor disc slightly forward so that a proportion of its lift is directed backwards; these are called helicopters. Other
rotorcraft are compound helicoptersand autogyros which sometimes use other means of propulsion, such as propellers and jets.

The rotor of a helicopter may, like a propeller, be powered by a variety of methods such as an internal-combustion engine or jet
turbine. Tip jets, fed by gases passing along hollow rotor blades from a centrally mounted engine, have been experimented with.
Attempts have even been made to mount engines directly on the rotor tips.

Jet propulsion

Jet aircraft
Airbreathing jet engines provide thrust by taking in air, compressing the air, injecting fuel into the hot compressed air mixture in a
combustion chamber, the resulting accelerated exhaust ejects rearwards through a turbine which drives the compressor. The reaction
against this acceleration provides the engine thrust.

Jet engines can provide much higher thrust than propellers, and are naturally efficient at higher altitudes, being able to operate above
40,000 ft (12,000 m). They are also much more fuel-efficient at normal flight speeds than rockets. Consequently, nearly all high-
speed and high-altitude aircraft use jet engines.

The early turbojet and modern turbofan use a spinning compressor and turbine to provide thrust. Many, mostly in military aviation,
add an afterburner which injects extra fuel into the hot exhaust.
Use of a turbine is not absolutely necessary: other designs include the crude pulse
jet, high-speed ramjet and the still-experimental supersonic-combustion ramjet or
scramjet. These mechanically simple designs require an existing airflow to work and
cannot work when stationary, so they must be launched by a catapult or rocket
booster, or dropped from a mother ship.

The bypass turbofan engines of the Lockheed SR-71 were a hybrid design – the
aircraft took off and landed in jet turbine configuration, and for high-speed flight the
afterburner was lit and the turbine bypassed, to create a ramjet. A jet-engined Boeing 777 taking off

The motorjet was a very early design which used a piston engine in place of the
combustion chamber, similar to a turbocharged piston engine except that the thrust is derived from the turbine instead of the
crankshaft. It was soon superseded by the turbojet and remained a curiosity
.

Rocket-powered aircraft
Rocket propulsion offers very high thrust for light weight and has no height limit, but suffers from high fuel consumption and the
need to carry oxidant as well as propellant.

Rocket-powered aircraft have been experimented with, and during the Second World War the Messerschmitt Komet fighter was
developed and used operationally. Since then they have been restricted to specialised niches, such as the Bell X-1 which broke the
sound barrier or the North American X-15 which was capable of flying at extremely high altitudes at the border with space as it was
not dependent on atmospheric oxygen.

Rockets have more often been used as a supplement to the main powerplant, typically in the case of rocket-assisted take off to give
more power for a heavily loaded aircraft or reduce the takeoff run. In a number of designs such as the prototype "mixed-power"
Saunders-Roe SR.53 interceptor a rocket was used to provide high-speed climb and speed to reach the target while a smaller turbojet
provided a slower and more economical return to base.

Ornithopter
The ornithopter obtains thrust by flapping its wings. When the wing flaps, as opposed to gliding, it continues to develop lift as before,
but the lift is rotated forward to provide athrust component.

Working devices have been created for flight research and as prototypes, but the vertical oscillation of the fuselage, which tends to
accompany the wing flapping, limits their usefulness. The only practical application is a flying model hawk used to freeze prey
animals into stillness so that they can be captured.

Toys in the form of a flying model bird are also popular

.

Methods of powering lift

A fixed-wing aircraft obtains lift from airflow over the wing resulting from motion due to forward thrust. A few other types, such as
the rotary-winged autogyro, obtain lift through similar methods.

Some types use a separate power system to create lift. These include the rotary-winged helicopter and craft that use lift jets (e.g. the
flying bedstead).

A hot air balloon requires a power source (normally a gas burner) for lift, but is not normally considered a "powered aircraft".

See also
Nuclear-powered aircraft
 Unpowered aircraft

References

External links
Prehistory of Powered Flight(U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission)

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