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Trim drag, denoted as Dm in the diagram, is the component of aerodynamic drag on an aircraft created by the flight control surfaces, [1] mainly elevators and trimable horizontal stabilizers, when they are used to offset changes in pitching moment and centre of gravity during flight.
The drag curve or drag polar is the relationship between the drag on an aircraft and other variables, such as lift, the coefficient of lift, angle-of-attack or speed. It may be described by an equation or displayed as a graph (sometimes called a "polar plot"). [1] Drag may be expressed as actual drag or the coefficient of drag.
Lift and drag are the two components of the total aerodynamic force acting on an aerofoil or aircraft.. In aerodynamics, the lift-to-drag ratio (or L/D ratio) is the lift generated by an aerodynamic body such as an aerofoil or aircraft, divided by the aerodynamic drag caused by moving through air.
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 right. This diagram shows only the lift components; the similar drag considerations are not illustrated.
Aerodynamic spin diagram: lift and drag coefficients vs. angle of attack. Many types of airplanes spin only if the pilot simultaneously yaws and stalls the airplane (intentionally or unintentionally). [5] Under these circumstances, one wing stalls, or stalls more deeply than the other.
An aircraft is streamlined from nose to tail to reduce drag making it advantageous to keep the sideslip angle near zero, though an aircraft may be deliberately "sideslipped" to increase drag and descent rate during landing, to keep aircraft heading same as runway heading during cross-wind landings and during flight with asymmetric power.
The aerodynamic force is the resultant vector from adding the lift vector, perpendicular to the flow direction, and the drag vector, parallel to the flow direction. Forces on an aerofoil . In fluid mechanics , an aerodynamic force is a force exerted on a body by the air (or other gas ) in which the body is immersed, and is due to the relative ...
Cross-sectional area distribution along the complete airframe determines wave drag, largely independent of the actual shape. The blue and light green shapes are roughly equal in area. The Whitcomb area rule , named after NACA engineer Richard Whitcomb and also called the transonic area rule , is a design procedure used to reduce an aircraft 's ...