Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Aeronautical definitions


Wing geometry 
The planform of a wing is the shape of the wing seen on a plan view of the aircraft. Figure 1.4 illustrates this and includes the names of symbols of the various para- meters of the planform geometry. Note that the root ends of the leading and trailing edges have been connected across the fuselage by straight lines. An alternative to this
convention is that the leading and trailing edges, if straight, are produced to the aircraft centre-line.



Wing span 
The wing span is the dimension b, the distance between the extreme wingtips. The distance, s, from each tip to the centre-line, is the wing semi-span.
Chords 
The two lengths CT and co are the tip and root chords respectively; with the alter- native convention, the root chord is the distance between the intersections with the fuselage centre-line of the leading and trailing edges produced. The ratio c=/c0 is the
taper ratio A. Sometimes the reciprocal of this, namely co/c~, is taken as the taper ratio. For most wings CT/Q < 1.
Wing area 
The plan-area of the wing including the continuation within the fuselage is the gross wing area, SG. The unqualified term wing area S is usually intended to mean this gross wing area. The plan-area of the exposed wing, i.e. excluding the continuation within the fuselage, is the net wing area, SN.


1 comment: