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A fixed-wing aircraft may have more than one wing plane, stacked one above another: Biplane: two wing planes of similar size, stacked one above the other. The biplane is inherently lighter and stronger than a monoplane and was the most common configuration until the 1930s. The very first Wright Flyer I was a biplane.
An adaptive compliant wing is a wing which is flexible enough for aspects of its shape to be changed in flight. [1] [2] Flexible wings have a number of benefits.Conventional flight control mechanisms operate using hinges, resulting in disruptions to the airflow, vortices, and in some cases, separation of the airflow.
Aircraft wing showing the KFm4 Step. In the early 1960s, Richard Kline wanted to make a paper airplane that could handle strong winds, climb high, level off by itself and then enter a long downwards glide. After many experiments he was able to achieve this goal. He presented the paper airplane to Floyd Fogleman who saw it fly and resist stalling.
One promising approach that could rival slats are flexible wings. In flexible wings, much or all of a wing surface can change shape in flight to deflect air flow. The X-53 Active Aeroelastic Wing is a NASA effort. The adaptive compliant wing is a military and commercial effort. [7] [8] [9]
A new approach to airfoil design was pioneered in the 1930s, in which the airfoil shape was mathematically derived from the desired lift characteristics. Prior to this, airfoil shapes were first created and then had their characteristics measured in a wind tunnel. The 1-series airfoils are described by five digits in the following sequence:
Years of research and experience with the unusual conditions of supersonic flow have led to some interesting conclusions about airfoil design. Considering a rectangular wing, the pressure at a point P with coordinates (x,y) on the wing is defined only by the pressure disturbances originated at points within the upstream Mach cone emanating from point P. [3] As result, the wing tips modify the ...
Modern aircraft wings may have different airfoil sections along the wing span, each one optimized for the conditions in each section of the wing. Movable high-lift devices, flaps and sometimes slats, are fitted to airfoils on almost every aircraft. A trailing edge flap acts similarly to an aileron; however, it, as opposed to an aileron, can be ...
Folding wings allow more aircraft storage in the confined space of the hangar deck of an aircraft carrier; Variable-sweep wing or "swing wings" that allow outstretched wings during low-speed flight (e.g., take-off, landing and loitering) and swept back wings for high-speed flight (including supersonic flight), such as in the F-111 Aardvark, the ...