Wing (aeronautics)

“ We found, according to the accepted tables of air pressure on curved surfaces, that a machine spreading 200 square feet of wing surface would be sufficient for our purpose, and that places would easily be found along the Atlantic coast where winds of sixteen to twenty-five miles were not at all uncommon. When the winds were low it was our plan to glide from the tops of sandhills, and when they were sufficiently strong to use a rope for our motor and fly over one spot. ”

“ The force derived from a propeller is of necessity continual, while it is equally obvious that that derived from a flapping movement is intermittent, and, in the recovery of a wing after completion of one stroke for the next, there is necessarily a certain cessation, if not loss, of power. ”

“ Engineering problems generally go to prove that too close an imitation of nature in her forms of reciprocating motion is not advantageous; it is impossible to copy the minutiae of a bird’s wing effectively, and the bird in flight depends on the tiniest details of its feathers just as much as on the general principle on which the whole wing is constructed. Bird flight, however, has attracted many experimenters, including even Lilienthal ”

“ Contemporary monoplanes practically all had their wings stayed by wires to a post in the centre above the fuselage, and, usually, to the undercarriage below. In the Antoinette, however, a king post was introduced half-way along the wing, from which wires were carried to the ends of the wings and the body. This was intended to give increased strength and permitted of a greater wing-spread and consequently improved aspect ratio. ”

“ The wings are built of wooden 'spars', of which there are usually two along the length of each wing, connected together by wooden 'ribs'. The wings of a biplane are braced by the struts (see above) and by wires. 'Landing-wires' support the weight of the wing on the ground, while 'flying-wires' prevent them folding upwards under the influence of the lift in flight. 'Drift-wires' are to prevent the wings folding [47] backwards under the pressure of the air in flight. See also Aeronautics, Sea-planes.—Bibliography: H. Barber, The Aeroplane Speaks ”

“ The right wing tip and aileron were bent upward approximately 10 to 15 degrees at the point of the wing tip attachment.Examination of the control section disclosed that all controls were connected and still operative. ”

“ The supporting power of the wings depends partly on their size and partly on their rate of motion. Small wings moving at high speed produce the same supporting pressure of air beneath them as large wings flying at slow speed. The problem of a safe landing could best be solved by building wings whose area could be altered in mid-air. When traveling under full power the pilot would reduce the wing spread, as the smaller wings would then be sufficient to support the weight of the machine and would create less air resistance. ”

“ Another glance would show one of them suspended bottom up, falling sidewise, tipped vertically on a wing, standing on its tail, as though being blown about by the wind, out of all control. It is only in the air, when moving with them, that one can really appreciate the variety and grace of movement of a flock of high-powered avions de chasse. ”

“ Stalling due to turbulence, without there having been any ice on the wings to increase the susceptibility to such stalling, is extremely rare, but cannot be absolutely eliminated as a possibility.
When an airplane of the type involved in the Lovettsville accident is deliberately stalled with power on, the stall customarily develops first on one wing-tip and that wing drops sharply, the airplane simultaneously turning toward the low wing. ”

“ Here again the construction of the airplane follows very closely the general form of the bird. A large bird which flew very high would be found to have his wings arched high in front, where they would have considerable thickness, and sloping down very rapidly toward the rear, while their thickness rapidly diminished. This sort of wing has great lifting power, and it is the sort that is used on an airplane which is built to “climb” rather than to develop speed. ”

“ They spread their wings to the wind, and sail by the hour, with no perceptible exertion beyond that required to balance and steer themselves. What sustains them is not definitely known, though it is almost certain that it is a rising current of air. ”

“ The increase in weight added by the weight of the ice itself is of relatively little importance. The important effect of the accumulation of ice is aerodynamic. Since the flight characteristics of the wing are very sensitive to the precise contour of the wing section, the accumulation of ice may be expected to have an does have pronounced effects. ”

“ Just as the wing of a plane bites into the air to cause lift, the propeller blades, patterned after wing camber, bite into the air to create thrust. Their action on the air is similar to a screw biting its way into wood. ”

“ Although pilots do not agree as to the effect of ice on the DC-3, it may be concluded that ice does raise the stalling speed to some unpredictable extent and that the effect cannot be stated in terms of the amount of ice alone, but is dependent upon both the amount of accumulation and its location on the wing. ”

“ Following its arrival in Washington, the airplane was serviced with gasoline and oil and was given a routine "turn-around" inspection. This inspection consists of a general visual examination of the airplane, especially of the propellers, wing and tail surfaces, and the controls which are visible from the outside, and the testing of the controls, engines, instruments, and radio equipment. In addition, the interior of the airplane is cleaned and the outside surfaces wiped off. ”

“ Prior to a scheduled departure, the aircraft was taxied into take-off position and, while the engines were being warmed and run up, the left landing gear retracted, allowing the left wing to settle. The left propeller and the left wing tip struck the ground with resultant minor damage. ”

“ But whether it be a rising current or something else, it is as well able to support a flying machine as a bird, if man once learns the art of utilising it. In gliding experiments it has long been known that the rate of vertical descent is very much retarded, and the duration of the flight greatly prolonged, if a strong wind blows up the face of the hill parallel to its surface. ”

“ His principal published work, a monograph entitled Aerial Navigation, has been republished in the admirable series of 'Aeronautical Classics' issued by the Royal Aeronautical Society. He began this work by pointing out the impossibility of flying by means of attached wings, an impossibility due to the fact that, while the pectoral muscles of a bird account for more than two-thirds of its whole muscular strength, in a man the muscles available for flying, no matter what mechanism might be used, would not exceed one-tenth of his total strength. ”

“ In a flying machine, the combination, with an aeroplane, and means for simultaneously moving the lateral portions thereof into different angular relations to the normal plane of the body of the aeroplane and to each other, so as to present to the atmosphere different angles of incidence, of a vertical rudder, and means whereby said rudder is caused to present to the wind that side thereof nearest the side of the aeroplane having the smaller angle of incidence and offering the least resistance to the atmosphere, substantially as described. ”

“ This element of inherent stability is obtained by suitably grading the camber and incidence of the wings, until at the wing tips the chord of the plane section forms a negative angle to the line of flight. Although this arrangement is undoubtedly of value, especially for the touring machine of moderate power, its chief fault lies in the relatively slow righting movements, which, although of no great consequence at a reasonable altitude, becomes a source of danger when alighting, and certainly entail the use of ailerons, or warp, to counteract it. ”

“ Fig. 17.—Diagram showing that in fast airplanes wings are small; in slow airplanes wings are large.
(Above) Small wings; speed 115 mi. per hr.; for fighting. One seat.
(Below) Large wings; speed 80 mi. per hr.; for reconnaissance. Two seats.
Regarding area of wing surface, the pilot does not have to worry in a flight since he can do nothing to change it anyway. All he needs to know is that in different airplanes small wing area accompanies high speed and small weight-carrying capacity, as in the case of the Fokker and Sopwith speed scouts (see Fig. 17) . ”

“ Unquestionably, a support can be obtained by beating on the air but to do so it is necessary to adopt the principle employed by nature to secure an upward propulsion. As pointed out elsewhere, it cannot be the concaved type of wing, or its shape, or relative size to the weight it must carry.
As nature has furnished such a variety of data on these points, all varying to such a remarkable degree, we must look elsewhere to find the secret. Only one other direction offers any opportunity, and that is in the individual wing movement. ”

“ It may be added, briefly, that the loss in efficiency arising from the negative angle of the wing-tips is compensated by the backward slope and angle of the surfaces, which naturally causes the flow of air to be depleted outwardly beneath the planes, and even induces a certain amount of compression beneath the outer ends. The body is entirely covered in; the pilot’s seat is in the prow; the motor further to the rear. ”

“ For the aeroplane is not a discovery, nor an invention, either, in the ordinary sense, but the combined application and the nice adjustment of a dozen worked-out principles and a hundred ingenious devices for riding the baffling and unstable air currents. Every jut and turn, every little projection, every eccentric form of wing or plane or rudder, had its scientific explanation. Yet most boys who see an aeroplane think they can go and build one. ”

“ Wings modeled in this way are remarkably stable even when traveling across the wind. When a gust of wind strikes the outer edge of the plane, it tends to thrust it down rather than up, as is the case when a gust gets under a wing of the ordinary design. ”

“ For a moment after the pilot turns over the controls the plane keeps on a straight course, then the nose begins to lose its normal position on the horizon, a wing dips down, and a blast of air rushes in from one side of the cockpit. ”

“ Without going into a technical discussion of all the forces that enter into the flight of an aeroplane we must, however, realize that if the pressure of the atmosphere is uniform in all directions, in order to make the air forced under a wing or plane lift more than the air above forces down, the wing of the plane must be curved in such a way that the forward motion of the edge of the wing causes the air underneath to force any particle of the surface upward, while the upper surface is relieved of the pressure. ”

“ However that may be, what may be termed the mathematising of aeronautics has rendered the type itself evanescent; your pilot of to-day knows his craft, once he is trained, much in the manner that a driver of a motor-lorry knows his vehicle; design has been systematised, capabilities have been tabulated; camber, dihedral angle, aspect ratio, engine power, and plane surface, are business items of drawing office and machine shop; there is room for enterprise, for genius, and for skill; once and again there is room for daring, as in the first Atlantic flight. ”

“ That the wings invariably strike forwards during the down and up strokes in aerial flight is proved alike by observation and experiment. If any one watches a bird rising from the ground or the water, he cannot fail to perceive that the head and body are slightly tilted upwards, and that the wings are made to descend with great vigour in a downward and forward direction. The dead natural wing and a properly constructed artificial wing act in precisely the same way. ”

“ I would fasten a 150 pound sack of sand in the rider's seat, make the necessary adjustments, and send up an aeroplane upside down with a balloon, the aeroplane to be liberated by a time fuse. If the aeroplane did not immediately right itself, make a flight, and come safely to the ground, the money was theirs. ”

“ The structure of each wing is, in fact, very much like the rigging of a sailboat, the main spars taking the place of the mast while the wire stays take that of the shrouds, with this very important difference, that the mast of the boat is provided with a forestay to take the longitudinal pressure when going head to the wind, while the wing of an aeroplane often has no such provision, the longitudinal pressure due to air resistance being taken entirely by the spar. ”

“ OF THE NEW YORK HERALD.
“Three sets of follow or tandem planes project, with slight dihedral angles, for from eighty to forty feet on each side of the body of the craft, a wing width never before attained. Yet, in flight, the enormous craft is readily held aloft, with all its load, by wings that are no more than seven and one-half feet in chord—from front to trailing edge. Although it will be incomprehensible to many how such small lifting surface can elevate such a heavy structure, this becomes apparent when the airship is seen at rest. ”