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The air also has mass and thus inertia and will resist being pushed aside by the passage of an aeroplane. That resistance will be felt as pressure
changes on the aircraft surfaces.
Lift C L 1 v 2 A
2
v A
2
As the pilot can't change the wing shape (unless she/he extends
flaps) the angle of attack must have changed. How? By the pilot
adjusting control pressure to apply an aerodynamic force to the
aircraft's tailplane ( or some other control surface) which has the
effect of rotating the aircraft a degree or so about its lateral axis.
Drag
PARASITE DRAG
There are also skin-friction drag and form drag, which
are referred to as parasite drag. All drag other than
induced drag is parasite drag.
CL
L / D ratio
CD
L/D Ratio
L/D Ratio
What good is all this for aircraft design?
D
L CL
1
tan
L
D C D tan
h
tan
d
From the last equation we see that the higher the
L/D, the lower the glide angle, and the greater the
distance that a plane can travel across the ground for
a given change in height
L/D Ratio
Because lift and drag are both aerodynamic
forces, we can think of the L/D ratio as an
aerodynamic efficiency factor for the aircraft.
Designers of gliders and designers of cruising
aircraft want a high L/D ratio to maximize the
distance which an aircraft can fly. It is not
enough to just design an aircraft to produce
enough lift to overcome weight. The designer
must also keep the L/D ratio high to maximize
the range of the aircraft.