Myths and Legends

Otto Lilienthal
Wright Brothers

World War I
World War II
Specialized  Aircraft
Space Exploration
 
 

Wings- The wings are the most important lift producing part along with the propellers.  Jet transportation is what the army and marines use today.  When the metal flaps on the left go up the plane will turn to the opposite side, the same thing for the write.  The wings also create lift.  The wings have a great strategy called aerodynamics. An aircraft flies when the lift or upward force generated by the wings, increases to a value larger than the aircraft total weight. 

Tail Surfaces- The tail provides stability and control for the aircraft and is mounted on the aft portion of the fuselage.  It is made of two main parts , the vertical stabilizer, or fin, to which the rudder is attached and the horizontal stabilizer  to which the elevator is  connected.  the rudder is used in conjunction with the ailerons to create coordinate turns, while the elevator is used to climb or descend.  The horizontal stabilizer is some times placed high on the vertical stabilizer, as is the case with the DC-9 and the Boeing-727. the new Boeing 757 and 767 have the horizontal stabilizer placed to the rear section of the fuselage.

Propulsion Systems- The many aircraft propulsion system include those that drive a propeller. A propeller is 2-3 or 4 wooden or steal planks connected together.  Creates thrust to help the aircraft lift  off the ground. A propeller less aircraft uses a system that takes energy of rapidly expanding gasses for  propulsion, this type of engine is a jet engine.  It  makes a plane go faster than a plane with a propeller.  Turbo jet engines work more efficiently at high altitudes.

Landing Gear- Fixed gear consists of a simple design of struts, wheels and brakes.  It is not retractable to the wings or fuselage. It is usually found on light simple design aircraft.  On a more complex aircraft  the landing gear increases drag on a plane in flight, because of the drag it also increases range significantly.

Flying controls- Most  of the parts are located in the cockpit, one of the important instruments is the control wheel, it can be pulled back or  pushed forward to move the tail elevator, pushing  forward causes the nose to go down, and if you pull it back the nose of the plane will go up.

FLIGHT HAZARDS- Violent turbulence is the cause of many airplane crashes.  One type is updrafts and down drafts, they are large gusts of wind that can sweep an aircraft off coarse and into a mountain or sometimes a down draft can slam a plane into the ground.  Another form of turbulence is an invisible tornado that is flipped over, it is called an rotor.  A rotor can grab a nearby aircraft in its wind and steer it into the mountain.  Sometimes on a cold day a  plane might fly into a cloud that has a large amount of precipitation in it, some ice might get on the propeller and maybe shut down the engine, and if the engine shutdown your TOAST!

Aircraft Navigation- The aircraft navigation is basically just its radar. The radar tells the pilot where enemy and friend aircraft are.  it also tells where land marks are.