Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is a streamlined body that is capable of generating significantly more lift than drag. [1] Wings, sails and propeller blades are examples of airfoils. Foils of similar function designed with water as the working fluid are called hydrofoils.
A: blue line = chord, green line = camber mean-line, B: leading-edge radius, C: xy coordinates for the profile geometry (chord = x axis; y axis line on that leading edge) The NACA airfoil series is a set of standardized airfoil shapes developed by this agency, which became widely used in the design of aircraft wings.
Aerodynamicists determined that, by appropriately shaping the airfoil used, the severity of these problems could be greatly reduced, allowing the aircraft to attain much higher speeds; this is the basis of the supercritical wing. Its design allows the wing to maintain high performance levels at speeds closer to Mach 1 than traditional counterparts.
Aircraft wing showing the KFm3 Step. The Kline–Fogleman airfoil or KF airfoil is a simple airfoil design with single or multiple steps along the length of the wing. It was originally devised in the 1960s for paper airplanes. In the 21st century the KF airfoil has found renewed interest among hobbyist builders of radio-controlled aircraft, due ...
The wing configuration of a fixed-wing aircraft (including both gliders and powered aeroplanes) is its arrangement of lifting and related surfaces. Aircraft designs are often classified by their wing configuration. For example, the Supermarine Spitfire is a conventional low wing cantilever monoplane of straight elliptical planform with moderate ...
An aircraft with wings using a cambered airfoil will have a lower stalling speed than an aircraft with a similar wing loading and wings using a symmetric airfoil. One recent cambered design is called the supercritical airfoil. It is used for near-supersonic flight and produces a higher lift-to-drag ratio at near supersonic flight than ...
The Davis wing is a World War II -era aircraft wing design that was used by Consolidated Aircraft on the Consolidated B-24 Liberator, as well as other models. The airfoil had a lower drag coefficient than most contemporary designs, which allowed higher speeds, and created significant lift at relatively low angles of attack.
Aerodynamic center. Point on an airfoil where pitching moment coefficient is constant for all angles of attack. The distribution of forces on a wing in flight are both complex and varying. This image shows the forces for two typical airfoils, a symmetrical design on the left, and an asymmetrical design more typical of low-speed designs on the ...