Basics of Aircraft R.

Ravichandran

Unit 1 – HISTORY OF FLIGHTS

INTRODUCTION

Aerodynamics means the study of bodies in motion through the air and the forces that produce such
motion. It is indeed easy to understand in short ‘how an aircraft flies’. But to make that flight assumes we
should know about the problems that the flight presents and how these problems are solved. The man not
contented with only an aircraft that flies, he becomes crazy to fly at more speeds and at higher altitudes.
With at most safety for himself as well as for the machine. At present the space flights reaching moon is not
new to us. But to understand the theory behind these flights it requires the understanding of the basic theory
of flight. The aim of this subject is to start from the basic principles of flight and to finish with the modern
developments ofthis subject.

BRIEF HISTORY OF AERO-PLANES

EARLY AIRCRAFTS AND BASIC HISTORY OF AVIATION

The idea of human flight has engaged the thoughts of many men, since the beginning of the
history. The achievements of mechanical flight unlike so many pursuits of science was not brought about by
any pressure of need, but by envy. There are always man, who look at the birds and envy them as they ride
the winds. This dream of mechanical flight needed courage, a science of aerodynamics experience of
construction and control and achievement of a light and powerful engine to drive the propellers or jet.

Sir George Caylay who is often called as the ‘father of aerial navigation’ at the beginning of the 19th
century conceived all this. The foundations for aerial navigation were laid, in a true sense between 1799 and
1809.

On the foundation laid down by Caylay, many people tried to plan a device, design and construct
models and even full size vehicles in pursuit of mechanical flight. The essential of wing form stability and
propulsion began to emerge and by 1880’s were accompanied by the concrete achievements in automobile
engineering: the sphere which aviation used later very successfully.

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Then in 1890’s Lilienthel in Germeny started riding in the air by gliders and it was his example
which fired the imagination for Wright brothers in America and turned their attention in solving the
practical problems of Aviation. Taking in to their hands the varied threads of aerodynamics, construction,
pilotge, engine technology and propeller designs. Wright brothers made their first fabric aeroplane with
available knowledge at that time.

Ballooning after its first period of excitement was over settled down to become the sphere of
showman, sportsman, and the scientists who were interested in the high altitude research. The parachute
joined the balloons in 1797, when the French man Garnerin made the first human drops at Paris. In 1852
the steam driven airship become feasible and also the ‘light pressure airships’ of Santas and Dumant.

The powered airships took ten years (1895- 1905) to emerge from the glider that was perfected by
the Wright brothers. In 1906 Wright Flier III emerged which could be banked, tuned, circled and flown with
ease and which could comfortably stay in the air for more than half an hour at a time. In 19110 Roes Tractor
biplanes appeared.

With the advent of war, British French and the Germans proceeded methodically to develop various
types of aeroplane and gravity gradually improved with competition. In 1919, the Rolls-Royce eagle
engine was outstanding achievement. In 1928 the Hele-Shaw Becham propeller was designed. The Bristol
Centacros engine was developed in 1947. In1954, Rolls- Royce vertical lift test rig was developed. The
German V2 Rocket engine took its shape in 1942.

The true story of modern jet engine or turbo engine began in 1928, when ayoung coded name Frank
Whitte at the Royal Airforce college, England worked thesis titled ‘Future development in aircraft design’
and brought out information about jet and turbo jet engines. In 1939, first jet plane flew in Germany.

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LAYOUT OF CHRONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

Other Historical 400 B.C. — The first kites were invented by the Chinese
11th Century — Oliver of Malmesbury, a Benedictine Monk, is the first person to fly for some distance (125 paces)
with the aid of wings.
1485 — Leonardo da Vinci designed the ornithopter, a wing-flapping aircraft that would use almost every muscle of
the human body.
17th Century — The Royal Society of Great Britain passed out papers dealing with aeronautics to its members. After
reading and discussing the papers, members were encouraged to produce new information. Robert Hooke and Sir
Christopher Wrenn produced several notable papers.
1783 (June 5) — A duck, a sheep, and a rooster flew in a hot air balloon made of linen and paper by the Montgolfier
brothers.
1783 (Aug. 27) — French chemist J.A.O. Charles launched an unmanned hydrogen balloon from the Champ de Mars
in Paris.
1783 (Dec.) — J.A.O. Charles and assistant made the first manned flight in a hydrogen balloon from Paris to the
village of Nesle.
1794 (June 26) — The French used a tethered balloon to observe the battlefield and direct artillery fire.
1797 — Andre-Jacques Garnerin became the world’s first skydiver when he parachutes 2230 feet from a hot-air
balloon. 1837 (April 16) — Canadian John Ray successfully launched a weight-carrying paper balloon. The balloon
was blackened, which allowed the sun to heat the air within and thus provide lift. 1849 — A glider designed by Sir
George Cayley lifted a ten year old boy briefly into the air.
1852 — Henri Giffard puts the first airship (equivalent to an airborne submarine) into flight.1852 — Sir George
Cayley invented the first airliner wing.
1879 — Victor Tatim, a French engineer, built two compressed air model airplanes which flew successfully. 1891 —
Otto Lilienthal built the first practical glider for long flights. He is credited with establishing thesuperiority of
curved versus flat wings.
1895 — Alexander Graham Bell began experiments with flight-rotors, wings, gliders, and kites.Theseexperiments
led to the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) in 1907. 6 History and Physics of Flight
1896 (May 6) — Samuel P. Langley launched a 9 pound steam driven model airplane, the Aerodome No. 5.
1903 (Dec. 8) — Langley constructed a full size plane powered by an engine built by assistant Charles Manley.
Manley attempted to fly the plane with Langley as a passenger. The flight plan involved catapulting the plane off the
top of a houseboat on the Potomac River.
1903 (Dec. 17) — In Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville Wright became the first to achieve controlled powered
flight. He stayed aloft for twelve seconds.
1905 (Dec. 28) — A tetrahedral cell kite, the Frost King, built by A.G. Bell, carried Neil McDermid, a Baddeck,

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Nova Scotia native, into the air on a rope ladder.

1907 — Paul Cornu, a Frenchman, built the first free-flying helicopter. 1907 (Oct.) — The Aerial Experiment
Association (AEA) was formed.
1907 — The Cygnet, A.G. Bell’s aircraft made of 3,393 tetra cells and 184 square meters of silk, was launched. It
carried Lt. Thomas Selfridge as it launched from a raft towed behind the steamer Blue Hill. The kite was destroyed
upon landing due to the crew’s inexperience.
1908 (Mar. 12) — The Red Wing, the first plane built by the AEA, made its first flight 97 meters above the ice over
Lake Keuka in Hammondsport, New York. It was the first of four biplanes designed by Thomas Selfridge and had a
40 HP Curtiss engine. The name was acquired due to the red silk used to make its wings.
1908 (May 18) — F.W. Baldwin flew the White Wing, the second biplane constructed by the AEA at Hammondsport,
N.Y.
1908 (May 23) — J.A.D. McCurdy flew the White Wing to its destruction.
1908 (July 10) — With Glenn Curtiss as pilot, the June Bug, named due to its resemblance to the same named insect,
was the first plane to make a complete turn.
1908 (Aug. 29) — J.A.D. McCurdy completed the first figure 8 in the June Bug.
1908 (Sept. 17) — Lt. Thomas Selfridge became the first passenger aviation fatality in a crash with pilot Orville
Wright at Fort Meyers, Virginia.
1909 (Sept. 21) — W.R. Turnbull obtained a U.S. patent for an aeroplane and hydroplane.
1909 (Oct. 27) — First woman airplane passenger, Mrs. Henry Van Deman, flew with the Wright brothers.
1910 — Commercial Aviation began before WWI with the introduction of passenger carrying Zeppelin Airships;
between 1910 and 1914, these airships carried more than 35,000 passengers between various German cities.
1912 (Mar. 9-17) —Dr. Bell commissioned McCurdy to construct a tetrahedral flying machine, the Cygnet III. The
machine never succeeded in flying.
1913 (July 31) — Mrs. Alys McKey Bryant was the first woman to pilot a flight. She flew a Curtiss-type biplane at
Vancouver, B.C. 1914 — Autopilot was invented by Elmer Sperry.
1915 (Jan.) — First air-to-air combat and first German aerial bombing of Great Britain by Zeppelins. During WWI,
56 tons of aerial bombs were dropped on London, and 214 tons of aerial bombs were dropped on the restof Britain.
1915 — The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, predecessor of NASA, was created by the U.S. 1916
(Sept. 2) — Plane-to-plane radio transmission is successful at a distance of about 2 miles over North Island,
California.
1916 — Professor Givson developed air cooling of aircraft engines by means of spacing, depth, and thickness of fins,
and studied the effects of airflow at the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough.
1917 (Feb. 13)- Aircraft Manufacturers Association (AMA) formed. 1917- U.S. declared war on the Central Powers.

Basics of Aircraft R.Ravichandran

1918 (May) - Army pilots began the Post Office’s first regular airmail route (Washington to NewYork).
1918 — Weather reporting instruments, developed by Lt. W.F. Reed, were carried aloft by a kite balloon to take
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upper atmosphere weather soundings.
1919 — Deutsche Luftreederei, the first civil airline with passenger service, operated between Berlin, Leipzig,and
Weimar.
1919 (May) — Lieutenant-Commander A.C. Read and crew, in the Curtiss Flying Boat, were the first to fly overthe
Atlantic.
1919 (June 28) — Treaty of Versailles signed, leaving Germany disarmed of a military air force except rockets as
potential weapons.
1920-22 — Robert Goddard performed multiple experiments to determine the most efficient combination ofrocket
fuels.
1921 — Bessie Coleman became the first licensed African-American pilot 1926 — Robert Goddard worked with
rockets as a means of air travel.
1927 — Charles Lindbergh flew nonstop and solo across the Atlantic.1932 — Amelia Earhart solos across the
Atlantic.
1933 — The first modern airliner, the Boeing 247, made its initial flight. Its capacity is 10 passengers and 400
pounds of luggage. Luxuries included armchair seats, a flight attendant, and a bathroom.
1935 — Amelia Earhart flew solo across the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii to California.1937 — The jet engine was
invented by Frank Whittle.
1939 — Igor Sikorsky was credited for the first modern helicopter.
1943-45 — The Tuskegee Airmen were a prominent, all black squadron during WWII.1947 — Chuck Yeager flew
670 mph, faster than the speed of sound.
1957 — Russians launched Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite.1959 — Hovercraft invented by Christopher
Cockerell.
1960 — By pointing engine nozzles downward, Michel Wibault tested the first Jump Jet. Very little runway was
needed as a result.
1961 — Russian Yuri Gagarin was the first person in space.
1963 — Russian Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space. She orbited earth 48 times, traveling 1.2
million miles.
1969 — United States Apollo11 astronauts landed on the moon.
1973 — The first United States space station, Skylab, proveed that people can live in space for extended time
periods. 1977 — The Gossamer Condor was the first human-powered craft to fly successfully.
1981 — Columbia, the first Space Shuttle, was launched. 1984 — An astronaut maneuvering unit for space
movement was put into use by NASA.
1986 — Jeana Yeager and Dick Rutan were the first to circle the world without refueling. They started with 1,240

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gallons of fuel aboard the Voyager.

1993 — At only 11 years old, Victoria Van Meter became the youngest girl to fly across the United States.

DEVELOPMENT OF AIRCRAFT IN STRUCTURES

Aircraft have changed enormously over the last century from the early Wright
Flyer flown at Kittyhawk to the supersonic SR-71 Blackbird flown today. Of course the developments in
aeronautical engineering can be broken down into separate divisions that have developed at different rates:
a) the aerodynamics, b) power plant engineering, c) control, radios and navigation aids, d) airframe
engineering (e.g. hydraulic/electrical systems, interior fittings etc.), and finally e) the structural design.
For example, power plants have developed in two large steps separated by a series of sudden burst of
ingenuity. In order to facilitate the first successful flight the Wright Brothers had to find a light yet powerful
engine system. The next stride was the ingenious invention of the jet engine prior and during WWII by Sir
Frank Whittle and Hans von Ohain. In between, the power output of piston engines “increased almost 200
times from 12 bhp to over 2000 bhp in just 40 years, with only a ten times increasein mass (3) “.

As will be outlined in this article, the design of aerospace structures on the

other hand has only made one fundamental stride forward, but this change was sufficient to change the
complete design principle of modern aircraft. Today however, the strict environmental legislation and
advent of the composite era may induce further leaps in structural design.

Fig. 1. A schematic drawing of the Wright Flyer (1)

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Fig. 2. The modern supersonic SR-71 Blackbird (2)

1) Wire Braced Structures
If we look at the early design of aircraft such as the Wright Flyer in Figure 1 there can really be no
misunderstanding of the construction style. The entire aircraft, including most notably the wings, forward
and rear structures were all constructed from rectangular frames that were prevented from shearing (forming
a parallelogram) or collapsing by diagonally stretched wire. There were two major innovative thoughts
behind this design philosophy. Firstly, the idea that two parallel wings would facilitate a lighter yet stronger
structure than a single wing, and secondly, that these two wings could be supported with twolight wires
rather than with a single, thicker wooden member. The structural advantage of the biplane construction is
that the two wings, vertical struts and wires form a deep light beam, which is more resistant to bending and
twisting than a single wing. Much like a composite sandwich beam it can be treated as two stiff outer skins
for high bending rigidity connected by a lightweight “core” to provide resistance to shear and torsion.

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Fig. 3. Cutaway drawing of the 1917 Sopwith Camel (3)

Fig. 4. Cutaway drawing of the 1935 Hawker Hurricane (3)

The biplane construction with wire bracing was the most notable feature of aircraft construction for much of
the following years and paired nicely with lightweight materials such as bamboo and spruce (Figure 3).
Wood is a composite of cellulose fibres embedded in a matrix of lignin and the early aeronautical engineers
knew to take advantage of its high specific strength and stiffness. Strangely enough, after the

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era of metals we are now returning back to the composite roots of aircraft, albeit in a more advanced
fashion. The biplane era lasted until the 1930s at which point metal was taking over as the prime aerospace
material. Initially the design philosophy was not adapted to take full advantage of thin sheet metal
manufacturing techniques such that wooden spars and struts were just replaced by thinner metal tubing.
Consequently there remained a striking similarity in construction between a 1917 (Figure 3) and a1931
(Figure 4) fighter. Even though some thin metal sheets were being used these components generallydid not
carry much load such that the main fuselage structure featured 4 horizontal longerons supported by vertical
struts and wire bracing. This so called “Warren Girder” design can also be seen in some of earliest
monoplane wing constructions such as the 1935 Hawker Hurricane. Aeronautical engineers were initially
“unsure how to combine the new metal construction with a traditional fabric covering (3)” used on earlier
aircraft. The onset of WWII meant that some safe and conservative design decisions were madeto facilitate
monoplane wings and the “Warren Girder” principle was directly copied to the internal framework of
monoplane wings (Figure 5). These early designs were far from optimised and perfectly characterise the
transition period between wire-frame structures and the semi-monocoque structures we use today.

Fig. 5. The Hawker Hurricane wing construction (3).

2) Semi-Monocoque Structures
The internal cross-bracing was initially acceptable for the early single or double seater aircraft, but would
obviously not provide enough room for larger passenger aircrafts. To overcome this, inspiration was taken
from the long tradition and expertise in boat building which had already been applied to construct the
fuselages of early wooden flying boats. The highest standards of yacht construction at the time featured
“bent wooden frames and double or triple skins…with a clear varnished finish…and presented a

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much more open and usable fuselage interior (3)”. The well-established boat building techniques were thus
passed on to aircraft construction to produce newer aircraft with very smooth, aerodynamic profiles.

Fig. 6. Semi monocoque fuselage construction of an early wooden flying boat (4)
The major advantage of this type of construction is that the outer skin of the fuselage and wing no longer
just define the shape and aerodynamic profile of the aircraft, but become an active load-carrying memberof
the structure as well. Thus, the structure becomes “multifunctional” and more efficient, unlike the braced
fuselage which would be just as strong without the fabric covering the girders. As a consequence the whole
structure is generally at a uniform and lower stress level, reducing stress concentrations and giving better
fatigue life. Finally, as the majority of the material is located at the outer surface of the structure the second
and polar moments of area, and therefore the bending and torsional rigidities are much increased. On the
other hand, the thin-skinned construction means that compression and shear buckling become the most
likely forms of failure. In order to increase the critical buckling loads the skins are stiffened by stringers and
broken up into smaller sections by spars and ribs.

Fig. 7. Components of a semi monocoque wing (5)

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Because the external skin is now a working part of the structure this type of construction became to be
known as stressed skin or semi-monocoque, where monocoque means “shell in one piece” and “semi” is an
english addition to describe the discrete discontinuities of internal stiffeners. The adoption of the semi-
monocoque construction and a change from wood to metal naturally coincided since sheet metal production
allowed a variety of thin skins to be easily manufactured quite cheaply, with better surface finish and
superior material properties. Furthermore, metal construction was conducive to riveting which would
overcome the adhesive problems of early wooden semi-monocoque aircraft such as the deHavilland
Mosquito.

Fig. 8. Cutaway Drawing of the recently released A400M aircraft (6).

Figure 8 shows the typical construction of a modern aircraft. There have been numerous different structural
arrangements over the past number of years but all generally feature some sort of vertical stiffener (ribs in
the wings and rings in the fuselage) and longitudinal stiffener (called stringers). Over the years the main
driver has been towards a) a reduction in the number of rivets by reverting to bonded assembly or ideally
manufacturing separate components as a single piece and b) understanding the effectsand growth of cracks
under static and fatigue loading by building structures that can easily be inspected orhave multiple
redundancies (load paths). The design and manufacturing methods of semi-
monocoque aircraft are now so automated that the development of a new aluminium, medium sized

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airliner “could be regarded as a routine exercise (1)”. However, the continuing legislative pressure toreduce
weight and fuel consumption provides enough incentive for further development.
3) Sandwich Structures and Composite Materials
One of the major disadvantages of thin-skinned structures is their lack of rigidity under compressive loading
which gives them a tendency to buckle. A sheet of paper nicely illustrates this point, since it is quite strong
in tension but will provide no support under compression. One way of improving the rigidityof thin panels
is by increasing the bending stiffness with the aid of external stiffeners, which at the same time break the
structure up into smaller sections. The critical buckling load is a function of the square of the width of the
plate over which the load is applied. Therefore skins can be made 4 times stronger in buckling by just
cutting the width in half. As a wing bends upwards the main compressive loads act on the top skin along the
length of the wing and therefore a large number of stringers are visible across the width.

Another technique to provide more rigidity is sandwich construction. This generally features a very

Fig. 8. Buckling analysis of a stiffened wing panel. The stiffeners break the buckling mode shapes into

smaller wavelengths that require higher energy to form compared to a single wave (7)
lightweight core, such as a honeycomb lattice or a foam, sandwiched between two thin yet stiff outer panels.
Here the role of the sandwich core is to carry any shear loads and separate the two skins as far as possible.
The second moment of area is a function of the cube of the depth and therefore the bending rigidity is
greatly increased with this technique. Ideally, in this manner it would be possible to design an entire
fuselage without any internal rings or stringers and the Beech Starship is an excellent example of a
successful application. However, there are problems of forming honeycomb cores onto doubly curved shells
since the material is susceptible to strong anticlastic curvature, forming a saddle shape when bent in one
direction. Furthermore, there are problems with condensation and water ingress into the honeycomb cells
and the ability to guarantee a good bond surface between the core and the outer skins. There is the

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possibility to use foam cores instead, but these tend to be heavier with lower mechanical properties. Perhaps
the current trend is away from sandwich construction (10).

Fig. 9. A carbon fibre composite/honeycomb sandwich panel (9)

Fig. 10. The Beech Starship whose fuselage was design using sandwich construction with minimal

internal bulkheads and ribs (8)

One of the major applications of honeycomb structures has been in combination with composite materials.
Stiff carbon composite panels are the ideal candidate for the outer skins and the whole assembly can be co-
cured together in an autoclave without having to perform any secondary bonding operations. Furthermore,
the incredible specific strength and stiffness of carbon composites makes this combination an ultra
lightweight yet resilient structure for aerospace applications. Indeed, we are now at the start of the “black”
carbon age in commercial aircraft design. Apart from their excellent specific strength and stiffness
properties composites exhibit the ability to tailor optimum mechanical properties byorientating the majority
of plies in the direction of the load and allowing for less material waste during manufacture. As a result, the
first generation of commercial aircraft that contain large proportions of

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composite parts, such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350 XWB, are planned to enter service
throughout the next years.

Fig. 11. Considerable delamination leading to catastrophic failure (11)

Considerable effort has been made to mature composite technology in order to reduce manufacturing costs,
guarantee reliably high quality laminates, understand the highly complex failure criteria and built
hierarchical, multifunctional or self-healing structures. One of the major shortcomings is that the structural
advantages of fibre-reinforced plastics must be viewed with respect to applications where theprimary loads
are aligned with the fibre direction. However, if a composite plate is subjected to significant out-of-plane
stresses subsurface delaminations may develop between layers due to the weak
through-thickness cohesive strength of the composite. These intralaminar delaminations are a significant
problem as they are difficult to detect by visual inspection and may reduce the compressive strength of the
laminate by up to 60%.
4) Novel Designs
With environmental legislation becoming ever so strict it is adamant that new concepts for lightweight and
fuel efficient aircraft are found swiftly. Although the pressure on developing advanced composite materials
is high it must be remembered that 100 years of innovation were required to reach the stage that large metal
semi-monocoque structures could be manufactured in the 1940s and another 30 years to fully understand all
failure criteria. Thus we may still require significant research and development before all current issues with
composite materials are resolved. Apart from carbon fibre and other composites other researchers have been
looking into completely redefining the shape of aircraft. Researchers at MIT have been developing the
blended wing concept and NASA are exploring the technology of morphing or shape-changing aircraft,
taking inspiration directly from nature.

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Fig. 12. Illustration of the MIT Silent Aircraft concept (12).

Fig. 13. NASA morphing wing aircraft (13)

Whatever the final solution might look like the next 5o years in aerospace engineering will be incredibly
innovative, ground-breaking and an exciting industry to be part of!

DEVELOPMENT OF AIRCRAFT IN PROPULSION

The engines used to provide thrust may be of several types.
Reciprocating engines
Often an internal-combustion piston engine is used, especially for smaller planes. They are of various
types, based on the arrangement of the cylinders. Horizontally opposed engines employ four to six
cylinders lying flat and arrayed two or three on each side. In a radial engine the cylinders (ranging from
5 to as many as 28, depending on engine size) are mounted in a circle around the crankshaft, sometimes in
banks of two or more. Once the dominant piston-engine type, radials are now in only limited production;
most new requirements are met by remanufacturing existing stock.
Four to eight cylinders may be aligned one behind the other in an in-line engine; the cylinders may be
upright or inverted, the inverted having the crankshaft above the cylinders. V-type in-line engines, with the
cylinders arranged in banks of three, four, or six, also are used.
An early type of engine in which the propeller is affixed to the body of the cylinders, which rotate around
a stationary crankshaft, is the rotary engine. Modern rotary engines are patterned after the Wankel
principle of internal-combustion engines.
Automobile and other small engines are modified for use in homebuilt and ultralight aircraft. These
include two-stroke, rotary, and small versions of the conventional horizontally opposed type.

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Early in aviation history, most aircraft engines were liquid-cooled, first by water, then by a mixture of
water and ethylene glycol, the air-cooled rotaries being an exception. After Charles Lindbergh’s epic
transatlantic flight in 1927, a trend began toward radial air-cooled engines for reasons of reliability,
simplicity, and weight reduction, especially after streamlined cowlings (covers surrounding aircraft engines)
were developed to smooth out air flow and aid cooling. Designers continued to use liquid-cooled engines
when low frontal drag was an important consideration. Because of advances in engine cooling
technology, there has emerged a minor trend to return to liquid-cooled engines for
higher efficiency .

Jet engines
The gas turbine engine has almost completely replaced the engine for aircraft propulsion.
reciprocating
Jet engines derive thrust by ejecting the products of combustion in a jet at high speed. A turbine engine that
passes all the air through the combustion chamber is called a turbojet. Because its basic design employs
rotating rather than reciprocating parts, a turbojet is far simpler than a reciprocating engine of equivalent
power, weighs less, is more reliable, requires less maintenance, and has a far greater potential for generating
power. It consumes fuel at a faster rate, but the fuel is less expensive. In simplest terms,
a jet engine ingests air, heats it, and ejects it at high speed. Thus in a turbojet, ambient air is taken in at
the engine inlet (induction), compressed about 10 to 15 times in a compressor consisting of rotor and stator
blades (compression), and introduced into a combustion chamber where igniters ignite the injected fuel
(combustion). The resulting combustion produces high temperatures (on the order of 1,400 to 1,900
°F [760 to 1,040 °C]). The expanding hot gases pass through a multistage turbine, which turns the air
compressor through a coaxial shaft, and then into a discharge nozzle, thereby producing thrust from the
high-velocity stream of gases being ejected to the rear (exhaust).

turbofan

A turbofan is a turbine engine having a large low-pressure fan ahead of the compressor section; the low
pressure air is allowed to bypass the compressor and turbine, to mix with the jet stream, increasing the
mass of accelerated air. This system of moving large volumes of air at a slower speed raises efficiency
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and cuts both fuel consumption and noise.

turboprop engine driving a single rotation propeller

A turboprop is a turbine engine connected by a reduction gearbox to a propeller. Turboprop engines are
typically smaller and lighter than a piston engine, produce more power, and burn more but cheaper fuel.
Propfans, unducted fan jet engines, obtain ultrahigh bypass airflow using wide chord propellers driven by
the jet engine. Rockets are purely reactive engines, which usually use a fuel and an oxidizing agent in
combination. They are used primarily for research aircraft and as launch vehicles for spacecraft and
satellites.

ramjet
A ramjet is an air-breathing engine that, after being accelerated to high speeds, acts like a turbojet
without the need for a compressor or turbine. A scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) is an engine
designed for speeds beyond Mach 6, which mixes fuel into air flowing through it at supersonic speeds; it is
intended for hypersonic aircraft.
Engine placement
Aircraft types can also be characterized by the placement of their power plants. An aircraft with the

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engine and propeller facing with the line of flight is called a tractor type; if the engine and the propeller face
opposite the line of flight, it is a pusher type. (Both pusher propellers and canard surfaces were used on the
Wright Flyer; these have now come back into vogue on a number of aircraft. Canards are forward control
surfaces and serve to delay the onset of the stall. Some aircraft also have forward wings, which provide lift
and delay the stall, but these are not control surfaces and hence not canards.)
Jet engines are variously disposed, but the most common arrangement is to have them placed underneath the
wing in nacelles suspended on pylons or placed on stub fixtures at the rear of the fuselage. Supersonic
and hypersonic aircraft are usually designed with the engine as an integral part of the undersurface of the
fuselage, while in some special military stealth applications, the engine is entirely submerged within the
wing or fuselage structure.

DEVELOPMENT OF AIRCRAFT IN AERODYNAMICS

Aerodynamics, branch of physics that deals with the motion of air and other gaseous fluids and with
the forces acting on bodies passing through such a fluid. Aerodynamics seeks, in particular, to explain the
principles governing the flight of aircraft, rockets, and missiles. It is also concerned with the design of
automobiles, high-speed trains, and ships, as well as with the construction of such structures as bridges and
tall buildings to determine their resistance to high winds.

Observations of the flight of birds and projectiles stirred speculation among the ancients as to the
forces involved and the manner of their interaction. They, however, had no real knowledge of the physical
properties of air, nor did they attempt a systematic study of those properties. Most of their ideas reflected a
belief that the air provided a sustaining or impelling force. These notions were based to a large degree on
the principles of hydrostatics (the study of the pressures of liquids) as they were then understood. Thus, in
early times, it was thought that the impelling force of a projectile was associated with forces exerted on the
base by the closure of the flow of air around the body. This conception of air as an assisting medium rather
than a resisting force persisted for centuries, even though in the 16th century it was recognized that the
energy of motion of a projectile was imparted to it by the catapulting device.

Near the end of the 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci observed that air offered resistance to the
movement of a solid object and attributed this resistance to compressibility effects. Galileo later established
the fact of air resistance experimentally and arrived at the conclusion that the resistance was proportional to
the velocity of the object passing through it. In the late 17th century, Christiaan Huygens and Sir Isaac
Newton determined that air resistance to the motion of a body was proportional to the square of the velocity.
 Newton’s work in setting forth the laws of mechanics marked the beginning of the classical theories
of aerodynamics. He considered the pressure acting on an inclined plate as arising from the impingement of
particles on the side of the plate that faces the airstream. His formulation yielded the result that the pressure
acting on the plate was proportional to the product of the density of the air, the area of the plate, the square
of the velocity, and the square of the sine of the angle of inclination. This failed to account for the effects of
the flow on the upper surface of the plate where low pressures exist and from which a major portion of the
lift of a wing is produced. The idea of air as a continuum with a pressure field extending over great
distances from the plate was to come much later.

Various discoveries were made during the 18th and 19th centuries that contributed to a better
understanding of the factors influencing the movement of solid bodies through air. The relationship of
resistance to the viscous properties of a fluid, for example, was perceived in part by the early 1800s, and the
experiments of the British physicist Osborne Reynolds in the 1880s brought into clearer view the
significance of viscous effects.

Modern aerodynamics emerged about the time that the Wright brothers made their first powered
flight (1903). Several years after their historic effort, Frederick W. Lanchester, a British engineer, proposed
a circulation theory of lift of an airfoil of infinite span and a vortex theory of the lift of a wing of finite span.
The German physicist Ludwig Prandtl, commonly regarded as the father of modern aerodynamics, arrived
independently at the same hypotheses as Lanchester and developed the mathematical treatment. Prandtl’s
work, refined and expanded by subsequent investigators, formed the theoretical foundation of the field.
Among others who played a prominent role in the development of modern aerodynamics was the
Hungarian-born engineer Theodore von Kármán, whose contributions led to major advances in such areas as
turbulence theory and supersonic flight.
 The figure above presents a thumbnail history of the airplane’s aerodynamic development over the
twentieth century, including some of the significant contributors who helped to bring it about. This
historical overview parallels the organization of our recently published book Aerodynamical Design of
Aircraft by Computational Software. We outlined just a hint of this rich history below, with references to
which chapters in our book correspond with these milestones.

The design of a new aircraft is a very structured undertaking following a script pioneered by Frank
Barnwell in 1917. Since then aircraft performance has improved enormously by progress in aerodynamics,
materials, and propulsion. The task of the aerodynamic designer is to shape the aircraft to meet the
performance required for its mission: shape determines aerodynamic performance. Viewed from another
perspective, designers use aerodynamic analysis to provide performance data of the shape that makes use of
available technology.

The figure starts with the Wright brothers, who built a wind-tunnel to obtain lift and drag data for
wing sections. That was needed to estimate the engine power necessary for staying aloft. About the same
time, the first mathematical models capable of predicting lift were being worked out by Ludwig Prandtl. His
ground breaking boundary-layer theory enabled engineers to better understand airflow quantitatively.

Theory could now be combined with experiment to put more solid data into the designer’s hands,
thereby eliminating much of the previous guesswork. For example, the cross-sections of WWI aircraft
wings were all thin with small nose radius. The design derived from a misinterpretation of Reynolds number
effect in the test data. In 1918 Anton Fokker saw through this error and gave his D-VII aircraft a thick
airfoil with large nose radius. That kept the airflow attached at high angles of attack and gave the plane
superior climb and maneuver performance.

The next couple of decades bring us from 100 mph contraptions of wood and fabric held together by
bracing wires to the sleek shapes of 400 mph WWII fighters. Drag is the force the aerodynamic designer
most wants to reduce in every design decision. Melvin Jones’ proposal for “the streamlined aeroplane”
showed the gains achievable by cleaning up the shapes to keep the boundary layer attached. The
metamorphosis was made possible by technological infusions of materials, structural design and engine
power.

Prandtl’s lifting line theory for lift and drag of wings made significant impact on the shapes. The
RAF Spitfire’s elliptical wing planform was drag-optimal by theory, and made it iconic. Boundary layer
theory does an excellent job in wing section design and the student’s laptop can now analyze a shape in
minutes.

The invention of the jet engine changed the game entirely, planes now flew faster and higher. Speeds
close to Mach 1 had been achieved in dives and the deleterious effects of shock waves observed,
introducing the new design nemesis – wave drag. Wing sweep was suggested by theorist Adolf Busemann, a
pioneer in aerodynamics, already in 1935 as a means to reduce the drag associated with shock waves.

Soon German aerodynamicists showed by experiment that the idea worked. Designs to limit wave
drag brought about major changes in both planform and wing cross-section. For swept planforms Whitcomb
invented his “supercritical” airfoil to diminish wave drag at transonic speeds. For supersonic flight even
more slender delta-shaped planforms were devised with very thin airfoils. However, they gave less lift and
were prone to shed a vortex from their leading edge and flew badly close to stall at low speed when high
angles of attack were needed. In response Küchemann pioneered the concept of designing for “healthy flow
patterns” over slender configurations to achieve the desired performance.
 The theoretical models which had served low-speed design so well were useless for speeds
approaching Mach 1. But with the cold war on, enormous resources were poured into research and
experiments to reach air superiority by speed and altitude. Taking Saab development as an example, the J 29
Tunnan was the first European swept wing fighter in service and made its maiden flight in 1948. Only seven
years later the double-delta J 35 Draken flew at Mach 2, and most fighters in service today fly not much
faster or higher. The only commercial supersonic airliner was the Concorde, again with an iconic
characteristic ogee delta wing shape, also flying at Mach 2.

The development of computer power from 1950 onwards enabled CFD software development for
flow predictions at all speeds. The impact was felt decisively from the mid-sixties when machines such as
the IBM 7090 and later the IBM System 360 and the Control Data CD 6600 made high-performance
computing accessible to engineers. The Vortex Lattice development of the lifting line theory (Ch 3)
pioneered by Boeing’s Rubbert and Hedman, became a non-dispensable tool used to this day for low-speed
analysis and design, also incorporating the effects of aero-elastic deformations