Aspect ratio of a half wing full#
Aspect ratio of a half wing mac#

Today, many advanced gliders are constructed from seamless materials like fiber glass and carbon fiber.Īspect ratio is calculated by dividing the square of the span of the wing by the area of the wing. Unfortunately, the seams and rivets typical of aluminum significantly reduced performance due to parasitic drag, so gliders continued to adapt. The earliest of gliders were constructed from wood covered with canvas later versions were made from riveted structural aluminum skins. The surface of a glider's fuselage is designed to be as smooth as possible, allowing the plane to fly through the air with little parasitic drag. Why the difference? By sitting reclined, the cockpit and canopy can be more streamlined, creating less drag in flight.

powered airplanes, where pilots typically sit upright. Most gliders have seats for two people in the small cockpit, with pilots sitting in a reclined position, vs. Since there's no engine taking up space, a glider is sized around the cargo it carries the fuselage is designed to be as small and light as possible.

Aspect ratio of a half wing mac#

When Grumman produced the J79 version of the Tiger, a Mac 2 plane which could compete with the M2.0 Mirage, a Dassault test pilot got the go ahead for a test flight in US in 1958 and on the 2nd flight made an error with the flaps just before touchdown and the plane skidded along the runway but broke its back and was un-repairable.GolfCharlie232 / Flickr Streamlined Fuselage The French have had some funny tricks back in the 50s apart from the test flights flown by the FD2 in France in front of Dassault engineers which would have helped Dassault over some of its design choices. However by that time the first dozen or so wing boxes had been made for early production and couldnt be changed. The VC10 got part of the design ‘wrong’ as they found when test flying the prototype, and the fuel consumption wasnt as good as predicted. For civilian planes and military cargo lifters, it was Britain who came up with the first ‘super critical wing’ for the VC10, essentially a highly specific computer design, instead of the old way of choosing airfoil cross sections from standard sections produced by research institutes. Its quite silly that the Brits would steal something, which by that era was being designed uniquely for each airplane by computer software. Related Written by Hush Kit Posted in Uncategorized 7 comments

Aspect ratio of a half wing full#

Leading edge flap/slat Part-span Near full span Trailing edge sweep ~4 deg 3.5 deg (both negative sweep) Parameter Eurofighter Typhoon Mirage 2000

It is a bigger, heavier aircraft and has a bigger wing. The table below compares some parameters which define the wing shape – note that the fact that the Typhoon has a bigger wing is not really relevant to the debate. In detail, however, there are some significant differences arising from the differing approach taken to stability and control between the Mirage 2000 and the Typhoon. “Superficially, there is a resemblance between the wing design of the two aircraft, which is not surprising given the advantages in wave-drag and the ability to have a low thickness to chord, and yet reasonable internal volume for fuel and structure.

I was talking to a French aerospace engineer, who has asked to remain nameless, and we got onto the subject of the Typhoon. He grudgingly admired the weapons carriage arrangement, thought the intake design odd, but was most animated when talking about the wing which he claimed was a rip-off of the Mirage 2000s. Intrigued by this possibility I asked Jim Smith to look into this allegation. Going the other way across La Manche is the French assertion that the Harrier was a French concept (which is half-true but generous to Michel Wilbault). There’s also the possibly true claim that Dassault was secretly working on a indigenous swing-wing design while negotiating a part in the AFVG, the failed precursor to the Tornado (which led to the fastest European aircraft ever flown). There’s the oft-cited (and certainly false) claim that Dassault was inspired to create the delta-winged Mirage after seeing the Fairey Delta 2 in the early 1950s, an arrogant British theory that does not seem to make sense chronologically. Historically, there’s been lots of accusations of underhand play by European aircraft manufacturers.