What is Aircraft: Definition and 349 Discussions

An aircraft is a vehicle or machine that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines. Common examples of aircraft include airplanes, helicopters, airships (including blimps), gliders, paramotors, and hot air balloons.The human activity that surrounds aircraft is called aviation. The science of aviation, including designing and building aircraft, is called aeronautics. Crewed aircraft are flown by an onboard pilot, but unmanned aerial vehicles may be remotely controlled or self-controlled by onboard computers. Aircraft may be classified by different criteria, such as lift type, aircraft propulsion, usage and others.

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  1. T

    How do i get the frequency of undamped motion?

    Homework Statement The single wheel of an aircraft can undergo a max of 7500N at a vertical velocity of 8 m/s on landing. The vertical spring moves in SHM and has a stiffness of 600N/mm. The systems vertical damper has a damping coefficient of 38 x 10^3 Ns.m-1 Homework Equations F=Kx...
  2. Astronuc

    LIDAR application on commercial aircraft

    Boeing and Japan's Space Agency Are Testing LIDAR on Aircraft http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/news/a27595/boeing-japan-space-agency-develop-lidar-planes/ LIDAR, The equivalent of radar, but with lasers, could help aircraft track weather...
  3. Algr

    Supersonic vs Suborbital planes?

    So I'm watching a documentary on supersonic flight, and the challenges they describe seem SO daunting that I couldn't help but wonder: Wouldn't it just be easier to fly above (most of) the atmosphere? There must be an altitude where sonic booms no longer reach the ground and wind pressure no...
  4. L

    Force produced by flow in aircraft engine

    Homework Statement Consider an aircraft turbine as in the figure below. In the reference frame of the turbine, air of density ##\rho_0## comes into the turbine with speed ##U_0## through the entrance with cross sectional area ##S_0##. In the combustion zone, air is mixed with the fuel and...
  5. M

    Aircraft model in a wind tunnel and the full size version

    I try to understan this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_number What does "... such as between an aircraft model in a wind tunnel and the full size version." mean? Why cannot we use a full size version in a wind tunnel or why cannot model be full size? Thank you.
  6. Pilotman Ray

    Aircraft Start Sequence Trainer/Mockup

    I am stuck in the middle of building a circuit for an aircraft starting mockup that will train our students to correctly start the aircraft without accidentally re-engaging the starter and thus causing very costly maintenance actions. The system is 12v. We would like to have a 10 second delay...
  7. M

    Parts of the design of an aircraft that affect the pitching moment

    If I wanted a higher value for pitching moment due to a change in pitch rate, Mq, what are some design alterations I might make to an aircraft to incorporate this. I am guessing changes to the airfoil or maybe the tailplane but I am not sure what changes you would make to get a desired result.
  8. M

    Analysing short period oscillations of an aircraft

    Homework Statement Recently did a lab experiment were 3 different flight conditions were applied to the same aircraft to see how it affected the aircraft dynamics, we analysed the results by two different methods 1.) calculate using the flight coniditons with a formula sheet and 2.) we printed...
  9. E

    How to Calculate Drag Load of Sticker on Fast Moving Vehicle

    Hi Great Engineers, Need you help. I am required to calculate drag load on sticker to ensure it is not peeling off in operation. The vehicle may moves as fast as 220 km/hr with rectangular sticker size of 30 cm x 40 cm, thickness 0.0635 mm on its body. Wind direction is parallel to 40 cm length...
  10. Q

    Calculating P for an Aircraft Flying in a Circular Motion

    Homework Statement An aircraft flies with its wings tilted, in order to fly in a horizontal circle of radius r. The aircraft has mass 4.00 x 104 Kg and has a constant speed of 250ms-1 . with the aircraft flying in this way, two forces are acting on the plane, P [lift] and W [weight which is...
  11. bigfooted

    Engineering Aircraft engine design books from 1900-1920

    I'm interested in the knowledge that was available to aircraft engineers in the period 1900-1920. specifically the thermodynamics and mechanical engineering knowledge generally available, like in how much detail were the calculations on the performance, or the cooling of engines done, how...
  12. E

    Determining the sign of control derivatives

    I'm having quite a deal of trouble trying to figure this out. Say, for example, you wanted to have a statically stable aircraft. How do you determine what the signs (positive or negative) of the control derivates need to be for this condition to be satisfied ( CXα, CZα, Cmα, Cmq, CZδe, etc) ?
  13. R

    Aircraft Propeller Blast velocity while in motion

    I am working on a range extender for full size electric aircraft. It is a turbine located under the cowling, protruding only 8 inches. On my full size static model, the turbine can produce 600 watts with the prop blast v measuring 38 mph. If we could fly the plane (we can't, no wings) at 80...
  14. MaxKang

    Designing an Electric Aircraft: Testing Motor+Airfoil Configurations

    Hello, me and other engineering students at my university are designing an electric aircraft and we are hoping to implement the technology that NASA is currently working on, http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-electric-research-plane-gets-x-number-new-name Basically how it works is you have...
  15. S

    Measuring Altitudes in Aircraft: What Instrument is Used?

    Which instrument is used to measure altitudes in aircraft's
  16. UNCCME

    How are Flight Data Recorders built?

    I am curious as to the components of FDRs that allow them to sustain such g-forces and immense heat. Surely it's not just a steel box filled with paraffin wax. What alloys are used? what shapes are used in internal construction to prevent crushing/penetration? What do they insulate with and how...
  17. P

    Exploring the Possibility of Multi-Wing Aircraft Designs

    I played around with various parameters to air foils using Foilsim http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/foil3.html What I found was that for a given wing length, a smaller chord gives a better lift/drag ratio. This will make the wing area small, hence the total lift will be small and there...
  18. wolram

    The new British pilot less aircraft

    Does anyone have any information about the Taranis pilot less military aircraft?
  19. K

    Equilibrium velocity of a propeller-driven aircraft

    Hi - I just want to know if I'm approaching this correctly. I'm trying to calculate the equilibrium velocity of a propeller-driven aircraft when supplied a given amount of power. I'm iterating: min_velocity = 0.01 max_velocity= 200 aircraft_velocity = 5 for i in range(steps): force = 0.5 *...
  20. A

    Propeller Weight & Number of Blades: Effects on Thrust

    Does the weight of a propeller have any effect on the thrust provided? For example, if there are are two propellers of the same size same speed but different weight, would the one with more weight have a greater or lesser thrust? also would effect do the number of blades(faces) have on the way a...
  21. H

    General-Electric GEnx turbofan engine picture label request

    Hi! I am a student who is passionate about engines and mechanics (although the major I'm pursuing is CS.I believe we must not inhibit our intellectual curiosity). The following link will take you to the picture of an uncovered General Electric Next Generation Turbofan engine used by the 787...
  22. S

    How to work out the area of an elliptical wing?

    I am planning to measure the wing area of a Spitfire aircraft. I am going to use double integral formula, but firstly I need to derive the continuous function for the region of interest. Also, How to do that? I searched the entire internet and only found out the wing span of that aircraft...
  23. N

    Design Aircraft: Autodesk Inventor, Solidworks, CATIA

    Autodesk Inventor, Solidworks, and CATIA. I don't know which one are better to design an aircraft ? Which one should i pick for a beginner ?
  24. N

    Aircraft Streamlining: Benefits and Drawbacks

    Is it good if an aircraft has lot of streamlines ?
  25. L

    Why are vapour cones from aircraft cones?

    Does the vapour cone from a high-speed aircraft correspond to the Mach angle of its sonic boom? What is the general physics responsible for a vapour cone, and why does it resemble the shape of a cone? Basically I'm wondering if this : corresponds to this :
  26. Sergiy

    Building a digital VHR AM Aircraft receiver

    This is a continuation of the archived thread from https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/how-to-make-inductor-coils.570700/. Judging by the list of needed coils, I suspect the author was looking to build VHR AM Aircraft Receiver as described here...
  27. S

    Deflection of a scaled down aircraft wing

    Homework Statement As a project, I have had to design and build a scaled down version of a glider wing. The actual glider wing would be made of aluminium and have a length of 7.5m and have a uniformly distributed load of 30kg/m^2, the scaled down version is 0.9m and made of balsa wood. I want...
  28. Junichirol

    Calculating impact force during landing of aircraft

    I'm having my degree FYP with the title of 'water landing: conceptual design of float component of seaplane upon touchdown'. 1. ) I need guideline for calculating impact force of the seaplane when it touchdown on the water surface. 2. ) Regarding the landing time and landing distance. I'm...
  29. G

    Determining the acceleration of an aircraft

    Hello everyone. I'm currently doing a research on aircraft performance for my school project, which require me to design an airfoil to suit a specific mission. I'm not very familiar with the formulas used for calculating the aircraft performance and I would like to seek help from the forum...
  30. H

    Boron-Aluminum materials for aircraft use

    Recently I discussed aircraft materials with an engineer and we discussed the now famous carbon fiber materials being used for aircraft construction. But he mentioned something I never heard about before called Boron-Aluminum which supposedly is an advanced aircraft material. The few resources...
  31. A

    General equations for powering a model aircraft

    I was looking at building a fpv plane. I was wondering if anyone could help me with the basic equations i would need for motor sizing etc. Just how I would go about finding power required. Looking at about a loaded weight of about 5kg wingspan 2.5-3m. Not sure of speed maybe around 40-70kph.
  32. V

    What are the problems on human powered aircraft?

    i have planned to make a human powered aircraft.For that i want to know about the problems on making that.
  33. A

    Pressures in and around an aircraft

    I am a bit confused about pressures in and around an aircraft. Inside the cabin we have a static pressure, since we assume the air is standing still. (I know it's not, due to the Environmental Control system, but let's ignore that). Outide the aircraft we have the static pressure = p ambient...
  34. manal gull

    How to calculate these coefficient constants....?

    Now a days i am working on this paper...
  35. C

    Can closed wing aircraft take off as hydrofoil

    Mildly futuristic setting concerning technology, sparsely populated exoplanet with 3 atm. I'm looking for a cool, but very practical plane design. A photo of design that I thought about (from wikipedia) : (except that I think about a bit smaller ones) It looks as if such design had two...
  36. apashok87

    MATLAB Control Loading System Design & Dev with MATLAB/SIMULINK

    Dear All, can anybody help me with the design and development of control loading system for a fixed wing aircraft using MATLAB/SIMULINK. Thanks in advance. Regards, Ashok
  37. P

    Pre spinning aircraft tires before landing?

    Hello there, I was just wondering why aircraft tires are not spun up to landing speed before touching down, wouldn't this allow them to be used for much longer before they need to get retreaded? This would also cut down on the cleaning that happens on runways to remove the rubber right?
  38. M

    How aircraft reduce fuel splashes inside a wing

    Some passenger aircraft have fuel in their wings. How they manage to reduce fuel splashes inside wing when aircraft tilt left or right for turning. The immediate guess in my mind is multiple baffles to reduce fuel excessive movement. Am I right? Can someone explain or give some link where I can...
  39. A

    Tension in landing cable on an aircraft carrier

    Homework Statement [/B] Keep in mind this is a Top Gun-themed homework assignment. Cougar comes in for a shaky landing. His 20422 kg airplane traveling at 85 m/s strikes the deck at 3.5 degrees below the horizontal. Cougar's plane snags the landing cable stretched across the deck. The landing...
  40. D

    Contribution of the air in the jet aircraft engine

    I've read that the total forward force on an engine is given by a change of momentum which is written as ##P = \mu_{fuel}v_{0} + \mu_{air}(v_{0}-v) ##, where ##\mu_{fuel}##, ##\mu_{air}##, ##v_{0}## and ##v## are respectively the rate of decrease of mass of the fuel being burnt, the rate which...
  41. A

    Burt Rutan's newest aircraft design - the SkiGull

    Burt Rutan is at it again with a new plane the SkiGull - "Its docking system is two, 5” diameter electric motors each driving a 27” diameter folding prop. These self-contained units (Off-the-shelf motor, controller, batteries used for giant RC models) mount on each wing. They provide forward...
  42. J

    Is propeller pitch more related to RPM than aircraft speed?

    I'm reading about propellers and trying to get some of the basics, and some things are confusing to me. Namely, a quadcopter has a 12x6 prop, with a 6-pitch. That means in every rotation it should move 6 inches forward(up), but it doesn't do that at all since it's in hover mode. Wouldn't that...
  43. mootz

    Horsepower needed to lift 600 lb load, w/8 motors

    Good day Geniuses. im building a drone prototype for an agricultural project. approx. weight will be 600 lbs, using my own 8 rotor design. trying to determine rotor size and motor power required to fly such a device at 30 feet. would also be interested to determine an approximate wind speed...
  44. mheslep

    Fixed wing aircraft control via engine gimble

    It has been some time since I sat through basic aircraft dynamics, so I hope to check some conclusions about the topic. Clearly rockets and missiles have maintained stable flight via gimble of the engines. My understanding has been that designing, say, jet aircraft in this way (i.e. forgoing...
  45. W

    Aircraft Tail Design: Resources for Low Reynolds Numbers

    Anyone know any good resources on airplane tails? I am looking for a tail shape that will work at low reynolds numbers for a small (model sized) cargo plane. I found quite a lot on wings when I was looking for a shape for that but not so much for tails. If anyone knows any good books that...
  46. P

    A book for designing RC aircraft

    I am looking for a book that teaches how to design an RC aircraft, given performance specifications: $$v_{stall}, v_{max}, m_{payload}, h_{max}$$ That is, given the stall speed, max. speed, payload and service ceiling, I'd like to know how to design the aircraft's air-frame (wing span...
  47. gracy

    What happens to an object's velocity when thrown out of an aircraft?

    if any object is in aircraft so it will have velocity same as that of aircraft ,right ? and say in case it is thrown out of aircraft in between will it retain that velocity provided that no external force act on it?
  48. L

    Similarities between propeller aircraft and jet aircraft?

    I was thinking about the working principle of propeller aircraft (piston engined) during some dark night hours with nothing to do... Mostly because of flight simulator video games hahaha... Basically for the piston engined propeller aircraft (P-51 Mustang) to move forward, the propeller must be...
  49. J

    Why aren't drones and aircraft using hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells?

    I've heard they were much more efficient then li-ion batteries and anything else really.. and drones today are all about flight time, wouldn't hydrogen fuel cells result in a great flight time advantage? why are they not in use?
  50. ChimM

    Calculating Tapered Wing Aircraft

    Hi, can you help me understand this? "the tapered wing having a 6-ft. chord at the root, the leading and trailing edges being tangent to a circle of 2-ft. radius at the tip, and the fuselage being 3 ft. wide." What should the diagram looked like? 2 circles, 1 with 2 ft radius, and 3 ft in...
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