1 Elements of Aeronautics

Chapter:1 Historical Developments of Aeronautics

From the Myths

The story of Daedalus and Icarus is the most famous of all flight myths. Minos, the King of
Crete, hired the talented craftsman Daedalus to design a Labyrinth, or maze, in which to
imprison the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull creature. Each year, young people were
sacrificed to appease the monster. When Daedalus helped Theseus, a young hero selected for
the sacrifice, to kill the Minotaur and escape, Minos imprisoned the inventor and his son,
Icarus. Realizing that flight was the only way in which he and Icarus could free them,
Daedalus fashioned wings out of feathers and wax to carry them across the sea, away from
King Minos. Daedalus carefully instructed his son to fly “a middle course,” safely between
the water that might weigh down the feathers if it sprayed on them and the Sun, which could
melt the wax that held the feathers in place. Icarus, thrilled by the freedom of his flight and
curious to explore the heavens above him, soared higher and higher, until the heat of the Sun
destroyed his wings and he plunged to his death in the sea.

Hindu mythology tells of the bird deity Garuda, often depicted in art as having the body of a
man but the head and wings of an eagle. This great and powerful flying god-bird lent his
body as a vehicle to the Hindu god Vishnu, with whom he is worshiped. Garuda’s image can
be seen in sculpture, paintings, and architecture, especially that of royal residences.

Puspaka Vimana:It is the first flying plane mentioned in existing Hindu

mythology Pushpaka was originally made by Vishwakarma for Brahma, the Hindu god of
creation; later Brahma gifted it to Kubera, the God of wealth; but it was later stolen, along
with Lanka, by his half-brother, the demon king Ravana.

In 1000 B.C The Chinese invented kites that carried scouts on recon-naissance missions.

Ornithopter

One cannot fly with wings directly there must be

some mechanical equipments. the concept of wings
flapped up and down was replaced by various
mechanical mechanisms, powered by some type of
human arm, leg, or body movement. These
machines are called ornithopters.

Leonardo da Vinci himself was possessed by the

idea of human flight and that he designed vast
numbers of ornithopters toward the end of the
fifteenth century. He grasped that humans are too
heavy, and not strong enough, to fly using wings

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

2 Elements of Aeronautics

simply attached to the arms. About 1485 he drew detailed plans for a human-powered
ornithopter (a wing-flapping device intended to fly). There is no evidence that he actually
attempted to build such a device, although the image he presented was a powerful one. The
notion of a human-powered mechanical flight device, patterned after birds or bats, recurred
again and again over the next four centuries

The first ornithopters capable of flight were constructed in

France. Jobert in 1871 used a rubber band to power a
small model bird. Alphonse Pénaud, Abel Hureau de
Villeneuve, and Victor Tatin, also made rubber-powered
ornithopters during the 1870s. Tatin's ornithopter (now in
the US Air & Space Museum) was perhaps the first to use
active torsion of the wings, and apparently it served as the
basis for a commercial toy offered by Pichancourt c.

1889-Gustave Trouvé was the first to use internal combustion and his 1890 model flew a
distance of 70 metres in a demonstration for the French Academy of Sciences. The wings
were flapped by gunpowder charges activating
a bourdon tube.

1929-The human-powered ornithopter by Alexander

Lippisch was towed into the air and, upon release, would
perform powered glides. This research was
complemented by published papers describing Dr.
Lippisch's theories for flapping-wing flight. This work
took place in Germany.

1959-Emil Hartman also built a human-powered

ornithopter that was towed into the air (by car), and then
released to perform powered glides. This didn't have the
same theoretical complement as Lippisch's work, but it
was a very respectable effort in that it demonstrated the
definition of a true ornithopter being birdlike, but not
being a slavish copy of a bird. This work was done in
England.

1999-The Project Ornithopter engine-powered piloted

aircraft, which is based on the technology of the
Harris/DeLaurier model, self accelerated (flapping alone)
on level pavement to lift-off speed.

Applications for unmanned ornithopters

 Ornithopters can be made to resemble birds or insects .They are used to save
the endangered birds and animals .

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

3 Elements of Aeronautics

 Ornithopters can be made to resemble birds or insects, they could be used for military
applications, such as aerial reconnaissance without alerting the enemies that they are
under surveillance.
 Remotely piloted ornithopter resembling a large hummingbird for possible spy
missions.
 Used in Movies
Applications for unmanned ornithopters
Merits:
Flapping wings offer potential advantages in manoeuvrability and energy savings compared
with fixed-wing aircraft, as well as potentially vertical take-off and landing. It has been
suggested that these advantages are greatest at small sizes and low flying speeds.
Unlike airplanes and helicopters, the driving airfoils of the ornithopter have a flapping or
oscillating motion, instead of rotary. As with helicopters, the wings usually have a combined
function of providing both lift and thrust. Theoretically, the flapping wing can be set to zero
angle of attack on the upstroke, so it passes easily through the air. Since typically the flapping
airfoils produce both lift and thrust, drag-inducing structures are minimized. These two
advantages potentially allow a high degree of efficiency

Hot Baloons

On the 19th September 1783 Pilatre De Rozier, a scientist,

launched the first hot air balloon called 'Aerostat Reveillon'.
The passengers were a sheep, a duck and a rooster and the
balloon stayed in the air for a grand total of 15 minutes before
crashing back to the ground.

The first manned attempt came about 2 months later on 21st

November, with a balloon made by 2 French brothers, Joseph
and Etienne Montgolfier. The balloon was launched from the
centre of Paris and flew for a period of 20 minutes. The birth
of hot air ballooning!!!

Just 2 years later in 1785 a French balloonist, Jean Pierre

Blanchard, and his American co pilot, John Jefferies, became the first to fly across the
English Channel. In these early days of ballooning, the English Channel was considered the
first step to long distance ballooning so this was a large benchmark in ballooning history.
Unfortunately, this same year Pilatre de Rozier (the world's first balloonist) was killed in his
attempt at crossing the channel. His balloon exploded half an hour after takeoff due to the
experimental design of using a hydrogen balloon and hot air balloon tied together.

The next major pivotal point in balloon history was on January 7th 1793. Jean Pierre
Blanchard became the first to fly a hot air balloon in North America. George Washington was
present to see the balloon launch.

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

4 Elements of Aeronautics

In August of 1932 Swiss scientist Auguste Piccard was the first to achieve a manned flight to
the Stratosphere. He reached a height of 52,498 feet, setting the new altitude record.
The Altitude record was set again in 1960 when Captain Joe Kittinger parachute jumped from
a balloon that was at a height of 102,000 feet
The first Pacific crossing was achieved 3 years in 1981. The Double Eagle V launched from
Japan on November 10th and landed 84 hours later in Mendocino National Forest, California.
In1999 the first around the world flight was completed by Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones.
Leaving from Switzerland and landing in Africa,

HOW THE BALLOON WORKS

The basis of how the balloon works is that warmer air rises in cooler air. This is because hot
air is lighter than cool air as it has less mass per unit of volume.. The actual balloon (called an
envelope) has to be so large as it takes such a large amount of heated air to lift it off the
ground.

Increasing the air temperature inside the envelope makes it lighter than the surrounding
(ambient) air. The balloon floats because of the buoyant force exerted on it. The amount of
lift (or buoyancy) provided by a hot air balloon depends primarily upon the difference
between the temperature of the air inside the envelope and the temperature of the air outside
the envelope. For most envelopes made of nylon fabric, the maximum internal temperature is
limited to approximately 120 °C

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

5 Elements of Aeronautics

A hot air balloon is made up of 3 main parts:

The Envelope :The actual fabric balloon which holds the air.

The Burner:The unit which propels the heat up inside the envelope

The Basket: Where the passengers and pilot stand

The burner uses propane gas to heat up the air in the envelope to move the balloon off the
ground and into the air. The pilot must keep firing the burner at regular intervals throughout
the flight to ensure that the balloon continues to be stable. Naturally, the hot air will not
escape from the hole at the very bottom of the envelope as firstly, hot air rises and secondly,
the buoyancy keeps it moving up.

Types of Hot air baloons

 Montgolfier balloons :Standard hot air balloons are known as Montgolfier

balloons and rely solely on the buoyancy of hot air provided by the burner and
contained by the envelope.[49] This style of balloon was developed by the
Montgolfier brothers,
 Hybrid::This type of balloons has a separate cell for a lighter than air gas (typically
helium,) as well as a cone below for hot air (as is used in a hot air balloon) to heat the
helium at night. Hydrogen gas was used in the very early stages of development but
was quickly abandoned due to the obvious danger of introducing an open flame near
the gas. Solar[edit]
 Solar balloons : Solar balloons are hot air balloons that use just solar energy
captured by a dark envelope to heat the air inside.

‘Helicopters
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by rotors. This allows
the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward, and
laterally. These attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where
fixed-wing aircraft would usually not be able to take off or land. The capability to hover
efficiently for extended periods of time allows a helicopter to accomplish tasks that fixed-
wing aircraft and other forms of vertical takeoff and landing aircraft cannot perform.

The word helicopter is adapted from the French language hélicoptère, coined by Gustave
Ponton d'Amécourt in 1861

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

6 Elements of Aeronautics

Helicopter flight is governed by the pitch, or angle, of its rotor blades as the sweep through
the air. When climbing or
descending, the pitch of each
blade is changed simultaneously
and to the same degree. To climb,
the angle or pitch of the blades is
increased. To descend, the pitch
of the blade is decreased.
Because all blades are acting
simultaneously, or collectively,
this is known as collective pitch.

For forward, backward and

sideways flight, an additional
change of pitch is provided.
By the means the pitch of
each blade is increased at the
same selected point in its
circular pathway. This is
known as cyclic pitch.

For helicopters with contra-

rotating rotors, helicopter control
requires interaction between the
two rotors. A helicopter with
tandem rotors uses differential
collective pitch to change the
pitch attitude of the aircraft. To
pitch nose down and accelerate
forward, the collective pitch on

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

7 Elements of Aeronautics

the front rotor is decreased and the collective pitch on the rear rotor is increased
proportionally.

Because, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, when the engine is forcing
the rotor blades to turn in one direction, the body of the helicopter will want to rotate in the
opposite direction. The function of the tail rotor is to correct this tendency. The tail rotor
blades provide enough thrust to the side to keep the helicopter pointing in one direction. By
increasing or decreasing the pitch of the tail rotor blades the direction the helicopter is
pointing can be changed.

History
1In 15th century Italy, famous artist and inventor
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) produced this sketch
of a "helical air screw" to be powered by a wound-up
spring. Although this device, with its rotating spiral to
provide lift, was never built - it is one of the earliest
drawings of a helicopter machine.

2. Ukranian engineer Igor Sikorsky (1889 - 1972) is

credited with building the world's first helicopter in
1909, but it was more than 25 years before early
practical machines - like the VS-300 (pictured) were

flown in prewar trials.

3. By 1936, German inventor Professor Heinrich

Focke had one of the first true helicopters, the FA-61
(built by the Focke-Achgelis company). It could fly at
75 mph for up 150 miles, and was flown by female
test pilot Hanna Reitsch.

4. Britain was the first nation to use helicopters during

wartime, when a Sikorsky R-4 'Hoverfly' rescued a pilot
and three injured passengers from a plane crash in
mountains of northern Burma, April 1944.

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

8 Elements of Aeronautics

5.In the Autumn of 1946, a 50 mile point-to-pointrace was

staged between a commuter train, a motor car, a 200 mph
Lockheed Lodestar airplane and an S-51 - the world's first
civilian helicopter. It was organised by Russian defector
and inventor Igor Sikorsky to effectively prove the worth of
his creation as a means of public transportation .

6.In 1956, American inventor Stanley Hiller Jr built the

unique Rotorcycle XROE-1 (pictured), a mini-helicopter
capable of 80 mph.This foldaway unit could be easily
assembled in a few minutes without any special tools

7. America began production of the Bell UH-1, "Huey" -

utility helicopter (first flown in 1956) in 1959, and this was deployed in the Vietnam War
during the 1960s, as a troop
transport for 'Air Cavalry' forces,
and medevac duties, then later
for airborne assault to protect
ground troops.

8. In 1967, the French-built Aerospatiale (Eurocopter) SA

341 Gazelle became the first helicopter to feature a
'fenestron' tail rotor, which reduces noise levels.

7. First flown in 1975 (as YAH-64), the Boeing

(McDonnell Douglas) AH-64 Apache attack
helicopter is one of the most successful army
gunships in service, with over 1,000 built in
various types since 1984

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

9 Elements of Aeronautics

9. The biggest helicopter in the world (pictured) is Russia's heavy duty Mil Mi-26 Halo,
which first flew in 1977. Over 200
have been built, and the mighty
Halo is able to lift payloads of
20,000 kilos, in a cargo bay similar to
a C-130 Hercules transport plane.
Halo can cruise at 250 kph with 70
passengers or 80 troops, and has been used as an airborne hospital and a flying tanker.

10. The forward velocity of any

helicopter is limited due to vibration
stresses on the tips of leading rotor
blades as they approach the speed of
sound. On 11th August 1986, the
current world speed record for a
helicopter was set by a British GKN
Westland Lynx (G-LYNX, piloted by Trevor Egginton),

11. Although there were several experimental helicopters and prototypes without tail rotors,
such as the Hiller J-10, and
McDonnell's XH-20 'Little Henry'
(the world's first ram-jet
helicopter, built in 1947), it wasn't
until 2 July 1991 that the very first
McDonnell Douglas 500 series'
NOTAR (No Tail Rotor) chopper
got airborne, later to become the world's quietest production helicopter in the 1990s.

12.On 23 February 2004, the Pentagon

officially axed the futuristic Boeing-
Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche 'stealth'
attack helicopter

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

10 Elements of Aeronautics

13. The world's first hotelicopter (18 rooms

with five-star facilities) - a customised and
refitted Soviet-built Mil V-12 helicopter... but
it's simply another hoax, unleashed on 1st
April 2009.

Applications:

 helicopter uses include transportation of people and cargo, military uses, construction,
firefighting, search and rescue, tourism, medical transport, and aerial observation,
among others.
 A helicopter used to carry loads connected to long cables or slings is called an aerial
crane.
 The most grand-scale single non-combat helicopter operation is the disaster
management operation
 Helitack is the use of helicopters to combat wildland fires
 Helicopters are used as air ambulances for emergency medical assistance in situations
when an ambulance cannot easily or quickly reach the scene,
 Military forces use attack helicopters to conduct aerial attacks on ground targets
 Oil companies charter helicopters to move workers and parts quickly to remote
drilling sites located out to sea or in remote locations.
 Other uses of helicopters include, but are not limited to:
 Aerial photography
 Motion picture photography
 Electronic news gathering
 Reflection seismology
 Search and Rescue
 Tourism or recreation
 Transport

Merits

 It has a ability to takeoff and land vertically

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

11 Elements of Aeronautics

 It can hover for extended periods of time

 It has handling properties under low airspeed conditions

Demerits

 The main limitation of the helicopter is its low speed.

 It creates a lot of noise
 Helicopters also vibrate; an unadjusted helicopter can easily vibrate so much that it
will shake itself apart
 Conventional rotary-wing aircraft use a set of complex mechanical gearboxes to
convert the high rotation speed of gas turbines into the low speed required to drive
main and tail rotors.
 As with any moving vehicle, unsafe operation could result in loss of control,
structural damage, or loss of life.

BIPLANE:

A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other.
The first aircraft to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the
early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage over a
monoplane, it produces more drag than a similar unbraced or cantilever monoplane wing.

In a biplane aircraft, as two wings are placed one above the other. Both provide part of the
lift, although they are not able to produce twice as much lift as a single wing of similar size
and shape because the upper and the lower are working on nearly the same portion of the
atmosphere and thus interfere with each other's behaviour.

Improved structural techniques and materials and the quest for greater speed made the
biplane configuration obsolete for most purposes by the late 1930s.

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

12 Elements of Aeronautics

1. Interplane struts.
2. Cabane or center-section struts.
3. Flying wires.
4. Landing wires.
5. Incidence or stagger wires.
6. Drag wires.
7. Center-section cross bracing.
8. Aileron control wires.
9. Elevator control wires.
10. Control horn.

In the biplane configuration, the lower wing is usually attached to the fuselage, while
the upper wing is raised above the fuselage with an arrangement of cabane struts, although

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

13 Elements of Aeronautics

other arrangements have been used. Either or both of the main wings can support ailerons,
while flaps are more usually positioned on the lower wing. Bracing is nearly always added
between the upper and lower wings, in the form of wires (tension members) and/or slender
interplane struts positioned symmetrically on either side of the fuselage.

Merits

 Aircraft built with two main wings (or three in a triplane) can usually lift up to 20
percent more than can a similarly sized monoplane of similar wing span. A biplane
will therefore typically have a shorter wingspan than the equivalent monoplane, which
tends to afford greater maneuverability.

 The struts and wire bracing of a typical biplane form a box girder. Particularly when
divided into bays, this permits a very light but strong and rigid wing structure. This
allows a biplane to fly with very little power, and in the early days of aviation most
fixed-wing aircraft were biplanes.

Demerits

 Each wing negatively interferes with the aerodynamics of the other, requiring greater
overall surface area to produce the same lift as the equivalent monoplane.

 A biplane typically also produces more drag than a monoplane, especially as speed
increases.

Stagger:

stagger is the horizontal positioning of a biplane, triplane, or multiplane's wings in relation to

one another.

An aircraft is said to have positive stagger, or simply stagger, when the upper wing is
positioned forward of the lower (bottom).An aeroplane is said to have negative stagger in
unusual cases where the upper wing is positioned behind the lower wing.An aircraft with the
wings positioned directly above each other is said to have unstaggered wings.

There is a tendency for the upper wing to contribute a greater proportion of the total lift than
the lower with positive stagger, and less with negative stagger. Increase in positive stagger
also tends to move the centre of lift forward on the upper wing and backward on the lower
wing. When unstaggered, the centres of lift for upper and lower wings are almost

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

14 Elements of Aeronautics

coincidental. Positive stagger is by far the most common, as this positioning of the upper
wing(s) allows better visibility for the crew as well as increased aircraft longitudinal
stability, aerodynamic efficiency and maximum lift

Decalage

Decalage on a fixed-wing aircraft is the angle difference between the upper and lower wings
of a biplane, i.e. the acute angle contained between the chords of the wings in question.

The decalage is said to be positive when the upper wing has a higher angle of incidence than
the lower wing, and negative when its angle of incidence is lower. Positive decalage results in
greater lift from the upper wing than the lower wing, the difference increasing with the
amount of decalage.

In real life the biplane top wing is usually rigged with less angle of incidence - i.e. negative
decalage, causing the airstream separation and ensuing loss of lift (stall) occur first on the
lower wing, providing the biplane with extra margin of stability in stall.

Decalage angle can also refer to the difference in angle of the chord line of the wing and the
chord line of the horizontal stabilizer.

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

15 Elements of Aeronautics

MONOPLANE:

A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to
a biplane or triplane. Since the late 1930s it has been the most common form for a fixed-wing
aircraft.

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

16 Elements of Aeronautics

Types

The main distinction between types of monoplane is how high up the wings are in relation to
the fuselage:

 low-wing, the wing lower surface is level with or below the bottom of the fuselage.
 mid-wing, the wing is mounted mid-way up the fuselage.
 shoulder wing, the wing is mounted above the fuselage middle.
 high-wing, the wing upper surface is level with or above the top of the fuselage.
 parasol-wing, the wing is located above the fuselage and is not directly connected to it,
structural support being typically provided by a system of struts and often, especially in
the case of older aircraft, wire bracing.

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

 17 Elements of Aeronautics

Historical Developments

Leonardo Da Vinci

Glider concept Modern aircraft Concept

Sir George Cayley(1773- William Samuel Henson

Contemporary people
1857)

Otto Lilienthal Stringfellow

Manned unmanned

Felix Du Temple
Octave Chanute
Percy Samuel Pierpont Langley
Pilcher
Alexander Gram Bell
First Claim

Aeronautical Triangle GLENN CURTISS

Wright Brothers
Patent Imprigment

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

18 Elements of Aeronautics

Developments in Structures
When the Wright Brothers built their successful, powered airplane in 1903. The first of its
kind to carry a man aloft, the Wright Flyer had thin, cloth-covered wings attached to what
was primarily truss structures made of wood. The wings contained forward and rear spars and
were supported with both struts and wires. Stacked wings (two sets) were also part of the
Wright Flyer.

Powered heavier-than-air aviation grew from the Wright design. Inventors and fledgling
aviators began building their own aircraft. Early on, many were similar to that constructed by
the Wrights using wood and fabric with wires and struts to support the wing structure. In
1909, Frenchman Louis Bleriot produced an aircraft with notable design differences. He
built a successful mono-wing aircraft. The wings were still supported by wires, but a mast
extending above the fuselage enabled the wings to be supported from above, as well as
underneath. This made possible the extended wing length needed to lift an aircraft with a
single set of wings. Bleriot used a Pratt truss-type fuselage frame. More powerful engines
were developed and airframe structures changed to take advantage of the benefits German
Hugo Junkers was able to build an aircraft with metal truss construction and metal skin due to
the availability of stronger powerplants to thrust the plane forward and into the sky. The use
of metal instead of wood for the primary structure eliminated the need for external wing
braces and wires

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

19 Elements of Aeronautics

Leading up to World War I (WWI), stronger engines also allowed designers to develop
thicker wings with stronger spars. Wire wing bracing was no longer needed. Flatter, lower
wing surfaces on high-camber wings created more lift. WWI expanded the need for large
quantities of reliable aircraft. Used mostly for reconnaissance, stacked-wing tail draggers
with wood and metal truss frames with mostly fabric skin dominated the wartime sky.

Into the 1930s, all-metal aircraft accompanied new lighter and more powerful engines. Larger
semimonocoque fuselages were complimented with stress-skin wing designs. Fewer truss and
fabric aircraft were built. World War II (WWII) brought about a myriad of aircraft designs
using all metal technology. Deep fuel-carrying wings were the norm, but the desire for
higher flight speeds prompted the development of thin-winged aircraft in which fuel was
carried in the fuselage.

The first composite structure aircraft, the De Havilland Mosquito, used a balsa wood
sandwich material in the construction of the fuselage. [Figure 1-9]The fiberglass radome was
also developed during this period.

After WWII, the development of turbine engines led to higher altitude flight. The need for
pressurized aircraft pervaded aviation. Semimonocoque construction needed

to be made even stronger as a result. Refinements to the all-metal semimonocoque fuselage

structure were made to increase strength and combat metal fatigue caused by the
pressurization-depressurization cycle. Rounded windows and door openings were developed

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

20 Elements of Aeronautics

to avoid weak areas where cracks could form. skin and controlled tapering. Chemical milling
of wing

Wing loading also increased greatly. Multispar and box beam wing designs were developed
in response.

A steady increase in the use of honeycomb and foam core sandwich components and a wide
variety of composite materials characterizes the state of aviation structures from the 1970s to
the present. Many airframe structures are made of more than 50 percent advanced
composites, with some airframes approaching 100 percent

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

21 Elements of Aeronautics

Developments in Aircraft materials

1843 – Rubber: Mayans used rubber tree sap to make

balls for games Charles Goodyear added sulfur and heat to
rubber to create a tough, durable form that could be molded
into shapes. Rubber has become critical for the production
of tires, seals and gaskets .Currently, many applications that
used natural rubber have been replaced by synthetic rubbers
with high temperature, hardness or degradation resistance.
Rubber is an elastomer, meaning it can be made to stretch
great lengths and return to its original shape.

1903 - First Flight: The Wright Brothers made their first controlled self-propelled flight on

December 17th, 1903 at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk North Carolina. Many gliders been built
previous. The design featured: An engine with a lightweight aluminum engine blackSpruce and
steel wire structure Fabric skin

Wood:Wood is a natural composite material that has high strength to weight ratio. It is
easy to work with and shape with limited tools.
It is tough (resistant to damage) and
flexible.Steel wire provided additional stiffening
that could be adjusted and it was thin in cross-
section- so it would not add too much drag.

fabric skin: The fabric was stretched over the

spruce frame and coated with sealant. This initial
skin structure performed much like the sails of ships.

Aluminum Engine: The Wright Brother’s engine was

a large part of their success in flight.In 1903 aluminum
was still a new material. Aluminum was first produced in
metal form in 1825, but was not available commercially
until electricity became plentiful because large amounts
of energy are required to refine it. In 1903 most engines

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

22 Elements of Aeronautics

were constructed with cast iron which is roughly 3 times the weight of aluminum per unit
volume. Many engines of the time were steam engines and did not have high horsepower for
their weight.The Wright Brothers surveyed engine manufacturers
of the time; none could make an affordable, lightweight engine
with enough power. They decided to design and build their own
using aluminum.

1907 – Plastic :Plastics had been discovered prior to 1907,

but Leo Hendrik Baekeland refined plastic production to create a
product called bakelite. This new plastic could be molded into
any shape and proved to be stronger and more durable than
previous types. Thus a new material type was available for
control knobs, and electrically insulating parts.

1915 – All Metal Airplane :In 1915 Hugo Junkers built the first all metal airplane
using a tubular structure covered with corrugated sheet iron. This was a step away from the
limitations of using only natural wood materials with fixed properties.

1916 - Stressed-Skin Construction:The

LFG Roland C.II used formed plywood skin.
Fabricated plywood uses the natural composite of
wood and tailors the properties by alternating the grain
direction and thickness. This aircraft was different
than all previous because the plywood skin became
part of the structure. No longer was the skin acting
only as a sail to deflect the air, it was holding the craft
together.

1926 – Semi-Monocoque Construction:In 1925 Henry Ford purchased the

Stout Metal Airplane Company. The aircraft designed and built were based on the previous
work of Junkers.Ford Tri-motor employed stressed-skin construction also known as semi-
monocoque construction.

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

23 Elements of Aeronautics

1930’s – Increased Aluminum Use: Starting with the initial flight of the
Wright Brothers, aluminum saw increased use as it was produced cheaper and with better
properties.In the early 1930’s wood and wire construction was still competitive with early
aluminum construction.By the late 1930’s aluminum
construction techniques and semi-monocoque
construction supplanted wood structures.Duralumin,
an alloy of aluminum with copper added had been
developed in 1903 by German metallurgist Alfred
Wilm. The addition of copper allowed the material
to become stronger with age, but created corrosion
problems especially in salt water environments.The
United States Navy funded the development of
Alclad- which consisted of duralumin with pure aluminum coating to protect the alloy from
corrosion.

1931 – Stainless Steel Construction:In 1931 the Budd Company built the BB-1
Pioneer out of stainless steel sheet and strip using newly developed spot welding
technologies. The design was Italian in origin and used sheet metal frame, sheet metal
skinned fuselage and floats, and fabric covers wings and control surfaces.The Budd Company
was the leader in building railcar which used large amounts of stainless steel. The company
viewed stainless steel aircraft as a way to expand business and solve the corrosion issues
associated with duralumin.This aircraft was a flying boat configuration and performed as
expected, logging roughly 1000 flight hours.

1936 - Plastics Use Expands :Plexiglas is a trade name patented in 1933 by

German chemist Otto Röhm. Sheets were
made commercially available by 1936 and
quickly adapted for optical applications
including aircraft windscreens and
canopies.The material is light, transparent,
good impact resistance and is easily molded
or formed. It also weathers the environment well and will not yellow from UV radiation.This
material assisted in allowing designers of aircraft to continue to create enclosed, comfortable
and eventually pressurized cockpits and cabins.

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

24 Elements of Aeronautics

1942 – Composites – Fiberglass: Fiberglass was first produced by accident at

Corning Glass by blowing air into molten glass by researcher Dale Kleist. By the late 1930’s
fiberglass was being spun to create cloth.
In 1941 it was discovered that heat
treating the fibers gave increased
flexibility which is key to use in
composites. Early in World War II,
British agents stole the secrets to making
polyester resin which was given to
American manufacturing firms to use as
matrix material to hold the fiberglass
together. By 1942 Owens-Corning was
producing aircraft cockpit components from the fiberglass polyester composite
materials.Aircraft noses are often constructed from fiberglass to house the radar systems and
allow radio frequency transmission.

1940’s – 1950’s – Superalloys :Before World War II iron based alloys were
developed for high temperature .work.
The war increased demand of
performance materials for turbochargers
and jets. A superalloy is defined as a
metal that has high strength and creep
resistance at hiigh temperatures, in
addition to corrosion resistance.
Superalloys are now cobalt, nickel or nickel-iron based and some are “grown” as single
crystals. A typical application is jet engine turbine blades.Superalloys are known with such
names as: Hastelloy, Inconel, Waspaloy, Rene alloys and others.

1950-1963 – Titanium: In 1950 the Titanium Metals Corporation of America was

formed as a joint venture of National Lead Company and Allegheny Ludlum Steel
Corporation.The National Lead Co. had been studying titanium for several years prior as a
replacement for stainless steel in some applications. It was noted that the metal resisted
corrosion, resisted acids and had high strength. Titanium was identified as a strategic material
for aircraft, 40% lighter than stainless steel and a focal point for Cold War production.

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

25 Elements of Aeronautics

Estimated weight savings per aircraft using titanium were 400 to 4,000 pounds per engine
depending on the size of the aircraft.

1960s-Composites, ever larger aircraft were developed to carry passengers. As engine

technology improved, the jumbo jet was engineered and built. Still primarily aluminum with
a semimonocoque fuselage, the sheer size of the airliners of the day initiated a search for
lighter and stronger materials from which to build them. The use of honeycomb constructed
panels in Boeing’s airline series saved weight while not compromising strength. Initially,
aluminum core with aluminum or fiberglass skin sandwich panels were used on wing panels,
flight control surfaces, cabin floor boards, and other applications

A steady increase in the use of honeycomb and foam core sandwich components and a wide
variety of composite materials characterizes the state of aviation structures from the 1970s
to the present. Advanced techniques and material combinations have resulted in a gradual
shift from aluminium to carbon fiber and other strong, lightweight materials. These new
materials are engineered to meet specific performance requirements for various components
on the aircraft. Many airframe structures are made of more than 50 percent advanced
composites, with some airframes approaching 100 percent. The term “very light jet” (VLJ)
has come to describe a new generation of jet aircraft made almost entirely of advanced
composite materials It is possible that noncomposite aluminum aircraft structures will
become obsolete as did the methods and materials of construction used by Cayley,
Lilienthal, and the Wright Brother

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

26 Elements of Aeronautics

1998 – Aluminium- Lithium: Aluminium-lithium is an advanced alloy with trace

amounts of copper, zinc, manganese, magnesium, zirconium and iron which first saw limited
aerospace use in the 1950’s.

 Lithium is the worlds lightest metal, and its addition to aluminum, decreases weight,
improves strength, toughness, corrosion
resistance, and formability.
 The Space Shuttle external fuel tank was
changed to aluminum lithium alloy in 1998
bringing its weight from 66,000 lbs. to
58,800 to increase payload capacity.
 The new Airbus A350 uses a considerable
amount of aluminum-lithium for the wings
and fuselage, this amount is reported to be
as high as 20%.

Another important characteristic of Al-Li alloys is their superior Fatigue Crack Growth
(FCG) performance. This allows the use of less material and weight for equal safety margins
when compared to other advanced materials such as composites. Al-Li is a good choice for
structures that must be damage tolerant.

2005 – GLARE: “GLAss-REinforced” Fiber Metal Laminate (FML): GLARE is

a composite laminate construction of alternating layers of thin aluminum and layers of fiber
glass and plastic matrix material. The fiber orientation of the fiberglass can be tailored to
produce desired strength and stiffness.Although GLARE is a composite material, it can be
processed for component fabrication much like
aluminum sheet. It exhibits less similarity to traditional
composites that are more complex for design,
manufacture, inspection and maintenance.

2009 – Boeing 787 Dreamliner Large

scale composite use:

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

27 Elements of Aeronautics

The Boeing 787 weight breakdown by material type:

50% composite (fuselage, wings, tail, doors and interior)

20% aluminum (wing and tail leading edges)

15% titanium (engines components)

10% steel (various locations)

5% other

Future- Intelligent materials:

o Computer material health monitoring and real conditions maintenance-

o The system determines when maintenance and repair are needed.
o Materials change properties and configurations

Developments in Aerodynamics

1. Bernoulli Equation &Euler Equation

• Daniel Bernoulli (1700—1782) was bon in Groningen. Netherlands. On January 29,

1700 . His father. Johann Bernoulli, was a noted mathematician who made
contributions to differential and integral calculus and who later became a doctor of
medicine. Jakob Bernoulli .who was Johann’s brother (Daniel’s uncle), was an even
more accomplished mathematician; he made major contributions to the calculus: he
coined the term “integral”.

• Daniel Bernoulli had insight into the kinetic theory of gases; he theorized that a gas
was a collection of individual particles moving about in an agitated fashion He
correctly associated the increased temperature of a gas with increased energy of the

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

28 Elements of Aeronautics

particles. These ideas originally published in 1738, Daniel’s thoughts on the kinetic
motion of gases were published in his book Hydrodynamica(1738).

• Daniel Bernoulli had won 10 prizes offered by the Royal Academy of Sciences in
Paris for his solution In his Hydrodynamica, Bernoulli ranged over such topics as jet
propulsion. Manometers, and flow in pipes.

• Leonhard Euler (1707—1783) was also a Swiss mathematician. He was born at Basel,
Switzerland. on April 15, 1707. seven years after the birth of Daniel

• he was a student of Johann Bernoulli at the University of Rasel

• It was here that Euler was influenced by the work of the Bernoulli in hydrodynamics

• Euler originated the concept of pressure acting at a point in a gas. This quickly led to
his differential equation for a fluid accelerated by gradients in pressure

Mass Conservation

Mass of a fluid =

Mass Flow ̇

Mass flow entering the fluid=Mass flow moving out the fluid

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

29 Elements of Aeronautics

Momentum Conservation

Force Equation

F= PA

At inlet F = P*dy*dz

At outlet ( )

• Refer notes

Bernoulli Equatioin

• Refer notes

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

30 Elements of Aeronautics

2. Pitot Tube
3. Henri Pitot (1695—1771). Born in Aramon. France, in 1695.

4. Pitot began his career as an astronomer and mathematician. He was accomplished

enough to be elected to the Royal Academy of Sciences, Paris, in 1724. About this time.
Pilot became interested in hydraulics.

5. he was not satisfied with the existing technique of measuring the flow velocity, which
was to observe the speed of a floating object on the surface of the water.

6. he devised an instrument consisting of two tubes; one was simply a straight tube open at
one end which was inserted vertically into the water (to measure static pressure), the other
was a tube with one end bent at right angles, with the open end facing directly into the
flow (to measure total pressure)

The basic pitot tube consists of a tube pointing directly into the fluid flow. As this tube
contains fluid, a pressure can be measured; the moving fluid is brought to rest (stagnates) as
there is no outlet to allow flow to continue. This pressure is the stagnation pressure of the
fluid, also known as the total pressure or (particularly in aviation) the pitot pressure.

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

31 Elements of Aeronautics

The measured stagnation pressure cannot itself be used to determine the fluid velocity
(airspeed in aviation). However, Bernoulli's equation states:

Stagnation pressure = static pressure + dynamic pressure

Which can also be written

Solving that for velocity we get:

3. Wind Tunnels
A wind tunnel is a tool used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air moving past
solid objects. A wind tunnel consists of a closed tubular passage with the object under test
mounted in the middle. A powerful fan system moves air past the object; the fan must have
straightening vanes to smooth the airflow. The test object is instrumented with a sensitive
balance to measure the forces generated by airflow; or, the airflow may have smoke or other
substances injected to make the flow lines around the object visible. Full-scale aircraft or
vehicles are sometimes tested in large wind tunnels, but these facilities are expensive to
operate and some of their functions have been taken over by computer modelling. In addition
to vehicles, wind tunnels are used to study the airflow around large structures such as bridges
or office buildings

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

32 Elements of Aeronautics

Working Principle

Air is blown or sucked through a duct equipped with a viewing port and instrumentation
where models or geometrical shapes are mounted for study. Typically the air is moved
through the tunnel using a series of fans. For very large wind tunnels several meters in
diameter, a single large fan is not practical, and so instead an array of multiple fans are used
in parallel to provide sufficient airflow. Due to the sheer volume and speed of air movement
required, the fans may be powered by stationary turbofan engines rather than electric motors.

The airflow created by the fans that is entering the tunnel is itself highly turbulent due to the
fan blade motion (when the fan is blowing air into the test section – when it is sucking air
out of the test section downstream, the fan-blade turbulence is not a factor), and so is not
directly useful for accurate measurements. The air moving through the tunnel needs to be
relatively turbulence-free and laminar. To correct this problem, closely spaced vertical and
horizontal air vanes are used to smooth out the turbulent airflow before reaching the subject
of the testing.

Due to the effects of viscosity, the cross-section of a wind tunnel is typically circular rather
than square, because there will be greater flow constriction in the corners of a square tunnel
that can make the flow turbulent. A circular tunnel provides a smoother flow.

The inside facing of the tunnel is typically as smooth as possible, to reduce surface drag and
turbulence that could impact the accuracy of the testing. Even smooth walls induce some drag
into the airflow, and so the object being tested is usually kept near the center of the tunnel,

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

33 Elements of Aeronautics

with an empty buffer zone between the object and the tunnel walls. There are correction
factors to relate wind tunnel test results to open-air results.

The lighting is usually embedded into the circular walls of the tunnel and shines in through
windows. If the light were mounted on the inside surface of the tunnel in a conventional
manner, the light bulb would generate turbulence as the air blows around it. Similarly,
observation is usually done through transparent portholes into the tunnel. Rather than simply
being flat discs, these lighting and observation windows may be curved to match the cross-
section of the tunnel and further reduce turbulence around the window.

Various techniques are used to study the actual airflow around the geometry and compare it
with theoretical results, which must also take into account the Reynolds number and Mach
number for the regime of operation.

History:

• The first actual wind tunnel in history was designed and built over 100 yearsago by
Francis Wcnham at Greenwich. England. in 1871.Wenham’s tunnel was nothing more
than a 10-ft-long. It was awooden box with a square cross section, 18 in on a side.
steam-driven fan at the front end blew air through the duct. There was no contour,
hence no aerodynamic control or enhancement of the flow. Plane aerodynamic
surfaces were placed in the airstream at the end of the box, where Wenham measured
the lift and drag on weighing beams linked to the model.
• oratio F. Phillips. built the second known wind tunnel in history. Again, the flow duct
was a box, Phillips used steam ejectors (high-speed steam nozzles) downstream of the
test section to suck air through the tunnel, Phillips went on to conduct some
pioneering airfoil testing in his tunnel.
• the first wind tunnel in Russia was due to Nikolai Joukowski at the University of
Moscow in 1891
• Wright brothers in late 1901 concluded that a large part of the existing aerodynamic
data was erroneous. This led to their construction of a 6-ft-long 16-in-square wind
tunnel powered by a two-bladed fan connected to a gasoline engine
• In the early 1940s, the advent of the V-2 rocket as weIl as the jet engine put
supersonic flight in the minds of aeronautical engineers.

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

34 Elements of Aeronautics

• The first practical supersonic wind tunnel (or aerodynamic testing was developed by
Dr. A. Busemann at Braunschweig. Germany in the mid-193Os.Using the “method of
characteristics” technique
• The development of the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) followed by the
space program in l960s. Flight vehicles were soon lo encounter velocities as high as
36,000 ft/s in the atmosphere. hypersonic velocities. In turn, hypersonic wind tunnels
(M > 5) were suddenly in demand. The first hypersonic wind tunnel was operated by
the NACA at Langley in 1947.

Types of Wind Tunnel:

• Low-speed wind tunnels are used for operations at very low mach number, with
speeds in the test section up to 480 km/h
• A supersonic wind tunnel is a wind tunnel that produces supersonic speeds
(1.2<M<5) The Mach number and flow are determined by the nozzle geometry

• A hypersonic wind tunnel is designed to generate a hypersonic flow field in the

working section. The speed of these tunnels vary from Mach 5 to 15.

Applications

1. Pressure measurements:Pressure across the surfaces of the model can be measured

if the model includes pressure taps. This can be useful for pressure-dominated
phenomena, but this only accounts for normal forces on the body.
2. Force and moment measurements:With the model mounted on a force balance, one
can measure lift, drag, lateral forces, yaw, roll, and pitching moments over a range of
angle of attack. This allows one to produce common curves such as lift coefficient
versus angle of attack (shown).
3. Flow visualization:Because air is transparent it is difficult to directly observe the air
movement itself. Instead, multiple methods of both quantitative and qualitative flow
visualization methods have been developed for testing in a wind tunnel.
4. Qualitative methods

 Smoke
 Tufts

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

35 Elements of Aeronautics

Reynolds Number
• Osborne Reynolds. the man. He was born on October 23,1842. in Belfast Ireland. He was
raised in an intellectual family atmosphere:
• His father had been a fellow of Queens College. And headmaster of Dedham Grammar
School in Essex
• At the age of 19. he served a short apprenticeship in mechanical engineering before
attending Cambridge University a year later.
• Reynolds was a highly successful student at Cambridge. Graduating with the highest
honors in mathematics.
• In 1867, he was elected a fellow of Queens College. Cambridge (an honor earlier
bestowed upon his father).He went on to serve one year as a practicing civil engineer in
the office of John L.awson in London
• Developed Reynolds’s analogy in 1874, a relation between heat transfer and frictional
shear stress in a fluid. He Measured the average specific heat of water between freezing
and boiling, which ranks among the classic determinations of physical constants,
• Studied water currents and waves in estuaries,He Developed turbines and pumps, and
Studied the propagation of sound waves in fluids.
• The concept of the Reynolds number, was reported in I833 in a paper entitled “An
Experimental Investigation of the Circumstances which Determine whether the Motion of
Water in Parallel Channels Shall Be Direct or Sinuous, and of the Law of Resistance in
Parallel Channels.” Published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, this paper was the
first to demonstrate the transition from laminar to turbulent flow and relate this transition
o a critical value of a dimensionless parameter later to become known as the Reynolds
number
His Experimental set up is as shown below

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

36 Elements of Aeronautics

Reynolds filled a large reservoir with water, which fed into a glass pipe through a larger bell-
mouth entrance. As the water flowed through the pipe, Reynolds introduced dye into the
middle of the stream, al the entrance of the bell mouth. What happened to this thin filament
of dye as it flowed through the pipe. . The flow is from right to left. If the flow velocity was
small, the thin dye filament would travel downstream in a smooth, neat, orderly fashion, with
a clear demarcation between the dye and the rest of the water, as illustrated in Figure a.
However, if the flow velocity was increased beyond a certain value, the dye filament would
suddenly become unstable and would fill the entire pipe with color, as shown in Figure b.
Reynolds clearly pointed out that the smooth dye filament in Figure a corresponded to
laminar flow in the pipe, whereas the agitated and totally diffused dye filament in Figure b
was due to turbulent flow in the pipe. Furthermore, Reynolds studied the details of this
turbulent flow by visually observing the pipe flow illuminated by a momentary electric spark,
much as we would use a strobe light today. He saw that the turbulent flow consisted of a
large number of distinct eddies, as sketched in Figure c. The transition from laminar to
turbulent flow occurred when the parameter defined by pVD/p exceeded a certain critical
value, where p was the density of the water, V was the mean flow velocity, was the viscosity
coefficient, and D was the diameter of the pipe. This dimensionless parameter, first
introduced by Reynolds, later became known as the Reynolds number. Reynolds measured
the critical value of this number, above which turbulent flow occurred, as 2300. This original
work of Reynolds initiated the study of transition from laminar to turbulent flow as a new
field of research in fluid dynamics—a field which is still today one of the most important and
insufficiently understood areas of aerodynamics.

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

37 Elements of Aeronautics

6.Prandlt number
Prandtl made one of the most important contribution to fluid dynamics.
Thinking about the viscous flow over a body, he reasoned that the flow velocity right at the
surface was zero and
if the Reynolds number was high enough, the influence of friction was limited to a thin layer
(Prandtl first called it a transition layer) near the surface,
Therefore, the analysis of the flow field could be divided into two distinct regions—
• one close to the surface, which included friction,
• the other farther away, in which friction could be neglected

Developments in Propulsion

• Propellers
A propeller is a type of fan that transmits power by converting rotational motion into
thrust. A pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the
airfoil-shaped blade, and a fluid (such as air or water) is accelerated behind the blade.
Propeller dynamics can be modelled by both Bernoulli's principle and Newton's third
law.

History
• Leonardo da Vinci developed a helical screw for a sixteenth century helicopter toy.
Later, a year after the first successful balloon flight in 1783 (see Chap. 1), a hand-
driven propeller was mounted to a balloon by J. P. Blanchard. This was the first
propeller to be truly airborne, but it did notsucceed as a practical propulsive device.
It was in 1852 that a propeller connected to a steam engine was successfully
employed in an airship. This combination, designed by Henri Giffard, allowed him to
guide his airship over Paris at a top speed of 5 mi/h.
• George Cayley, eschewed the propeller and instead put his faith mistakenly in oarlike
paddles for propulsion.,

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

38 Elements of Aeronautics

• Henson’s aerial steam carriage envisioned two pusher propellers for a driving force,
and after that, propellers became the accepted propulsion concept for heavier-than-air
vehicles. Concurrently, in a related fashion, the marine propeller was developed for
use on steamships beginning in the early nineteenth century.
• Finally, toward the end of that century, the propeller was employed by Du Temple,
Mozhaiski, Langley, and others in their faltering efforts to get off the ground
• a close examination of these nineteenth century aircraft reveals that the propellers
were crude, wide, paddlelike blades which reflected virtually no understanding of
propeller aerodynamics. Their efficiencies must have been exceedingly low, which
certainly contributed to the universal failure of these machines. Even marine
propellers, which had been extensively developed by 1900 for steamships, were
strictly empirical in their design and at best had efficiencies on the order of 50
percent. There existed no rational hydrodynamic or aerodynamic theory for propeller
design at the turn of the century.
• when Wilbur and Orville returned from Kill Devil Hills in the fall of 1902, flushed
with success after more than 1000 flights of their no. 3 glider and ready to make the
big step to a powered machine. Somewhat naively, Wilbur originally expected this
step to be straightforward; the engine could be ordered from existing automobile
companies, and the propeller could be easily designed from existing marine
technology. Neither proved to be the case. After spending several days in Dayton
libraries, Wilbur discovered that a theory for marine propellers did not exist and that
even an appreciation for their true aerodynamic function had not been developed. So
once again the Wright brothers, out of necessity, had to plunge into virgin engineering
territory. Throughout the winter of 1902—1903, they wrestled with propeller concepts
in order to provide accurate calculations for design. And once again they demon
strated that, without the benefit of a formal engineering education, they were the
premier aeronautical engineers of history. For example, by early spring of 1903, they
were the first to recognizç that a propeller is basically a rotating wing, made up of
airfoil sections that generated an aerodynamic force normal to the pro peller’s plane
of rotation. Moreover, they made use of their wind-tunnel data, obtained the previous
year on several hundred different airfoil shapes, and chose a suitably cambered shape
for the propeller section. They reasoned the necessity for twisting the blade in order to
account for the varying relative airflow velocity from the hub to the tip.

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

39 Elements of Aeronautics

• The propeller designed by the Wright brothers, principally by Wilbur, achieved the
remarkably high efficiency of 70 percent and was instrumental in their successful
flight on December 17, 1903, and in all flights thereafter.
• The final early cornerstone in the engineering theory and design of airplane propellers
was laid by William F. Durand about a decade after the Wright brothers’ design was
adopted. Durand was a charter member of the NACA and became its chairman in
1916 . Durand was also the head of the mechanical engineering department at
Stanford University at that time, and during 1916—1917 he supervised the
construction of a large wind tunnel on campus designed purely for the purpose of
experimenting with propellers. Then, in 1917, he published NACA report no. 14
entitled “Experimental Research on Air Propellers.” This report was the most
extensive engineering publication on propellers to that date; it contained experimental
data on numerous propellers of different blade shapes and airfoil sections. It is
apparently the first technical
• The values of maximum efficiency of most of Durand’s model pro pellers were 75 to
80 percent, a creditable value for that point in history.
• He shows by dimensional analysis that propeller efficiency must be a function of
advance ratio, Reynolds number, and Mach number, and he uses these results to help
correlate his experimental data. This early NACA report was an important milestone
in the development of the airplane propeller.

Advance ratio
In aeronautics and marine hydrodynamics, the advance ratio at which a propeller is perating
is the ratio between the distance the propeller moves forward through the fluid during one
revolution, and the diameter of the propeller. When a propeller-driven vehicle is moving at
high speed relative to the fluid the advance ratio of its propeller(s) is a high number; and when
it is moving at low speed the advance ratio is a low number. The advance ratio of a propeller
is analogous to the angle of attack of an airfoil.

The advance ratio J is a non-dimensional term given by

where
Va is the speed of advance per unit of time, typically the true airspeed of the aircraft

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

40 Elements of Aeronautics

or the water speed of the vessel

n is the propeller's rotational speed in revolutions per unit of time

D is the propeller's diameter

Combustion Engine

IA four-stroke engine (also known as four-cycle) is an internal combustion engine in which

the piston completes four separate strokes which comprise a single thermodynamic cycle. A
stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either direction. While risqué
slang among some automotive enthusiasts names these respectively the "suck," "squeeze,"
"bang" and "blow" strokes. they are more commonly termed

 INTAKE: this stroke of the piston begins at top dead center. The piston descends
from the top of the cylinder to the bottom of the cylinder, increasing the volume of the
cylinder. A mixture of fuel and air is forced by atmospheric (or greater) pressure into
the cylinder through the intake port.
 COMPRESSION: with both intake and exhaust valves closed, the piston returns to the
top of the cylinder compressing the air or fuel-air mixture into the cylinder head.

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

41 Elements of Aeronautics

 POWER: this is the start of the second revolution of the cycle. While the piston is
close to Top Dead Centre, the compressed air–fuel mixture in a gasoline engine is
ignited, by a spark plug in gasoline engines, or which ignites due to the heat generated
by compression in a diesel engine. The resulting pressure from the combustion of the
compressed fuel-air mixture forces the piston back down toward bottom dead centre.
 EXHAUST: during the exhaust stroke, the piston once again returns to top dead
centre while the exhaust valve is open. This action expels the spent fuel-air mixture
through the exhaust valve(s).

History

1807, he had conceived the idea for a hot-air engine, in which air is drawn from the
atmosphere, heated by passing it over a fire, and then expanded into a cylinder, doing work
on a piston. This was to be an alternative to steam power.
The development of IC engines gained momentum with Lenoir’s two-cycle gas-burning
engine in 1860. Then, in 1876, Nikolaus August Otto designed and built the first successful
four-stroke IC engine consisting of isentropic compression and power strokes with constant-
volume combustion, is called the Otto cycle.

Samuel Pierpont Langley. He correctly recognized that the gasoline-burning IC engine was
the appropriate power plant for an airplane. To power the newer versions of his Aerodromes,
Langley contracted with Stephen M. Balzer of New York in 1898 for an engine of 12 hp
weighing no more than 100 lb. Unfortunately, Baizer’s delivered product, which was derived
from the automobile engine, could produce only 8 hp. This was unacceptable, and Charles
Manly, Langley’s assistant, took the responsibility for a complete redesign of Baizer’s engine

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

42 Elements of Aeronautics

in the laboratory of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The net result was a
power lant, finished in 1902, which could produce 52.4 hp while weighing only 208 lb.

This was a remarkable achievement; it was not bettered until the advent of “high-
performance” aircraft toward the end of World War 1, 16 years later.

Moreover, Manly’s engine was a major departure from existing automobile engines of the
time. It was a radial engine, with five cylinders equally spaced in a circular pattern around a
central crankshaft. It appears to be the first aircraft radial engine in history,

Turbojet Engines

The turbojet is a kind of general-purpose airbreathing jet engine. Turbojets consist of an air
inlet, an air compressor, a combustion chamber, a gas turbine (that drives the air compressor)
and a nozzle.

Surrounding air are continuously brought into the engine inlet. (In England, they call this part
the intake, which is probably a more accurate description, since the compressor pulls air into
the engine.) We have shown here a tube-shaped inlet, like one you would see on an airliner.
But inlets come in many shapes and sizes depending on the aircraft's mission. At the rear of
the inlet, the air enters the compressor. The compressor acts like many rows of airfoils, with
each row producing a small jump in pressure. A compressor is like an electric fan. We have

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

43 Elements of Aeronautics

to supply energy to turn the compressor. At the exit of the compressor, the air is at a much
higher pressure than free stream. In the burner a small amount of fuel is combined with the
air and ignited. (In a typical jet engine, 100 pounds of air/sec is combined with only 2 pounds
of fuel/sec. Most of the hot exhaust has come from the surrounding air.) Leaving the burner,
the hot exhaust is passed through the turbine. The turbine works like a windmill. Instead of
needing energy to turn the blades to make the air flow, the turbine extracts energy from a
flow of gas by making the blades spin in the flow. In a jet engine we use the energy extracted
by the turbine to turn the compressor by linking the compressor and the turbine by the central
shaft. The turbine takes some energy out of the hot exhaust, but there is enough energy left
over to provide thrust to the jet engine by increasing the velocity through the nozzle.

Ramjets

Ramjetss a form of airbreathing jet engine using the engine's forward motion to compress
incoming air, without a rotary compressor. Ramjets cannot produce thrust at zero airspeed,
thus they cannot move an aircraft from a standstill. Ramjets therefore require assisted take off
. iRamjets can be particularly useful in applications requiring a small and simple mechanism
for high-speed use, such as missiles or artillery shells.

Working Principle

A ramjet is designed around its inlet. An object moving at high speed through air generates a
high pressure region upstream. A ramjet uses this high pressure in front of the engine to force
air through the tube, where it is heated by combusting some of it with fuel. It is then passed

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri

44 Elements of Aeronautics

through a nozzle to accelerate it to supersonic speeds. This acceleration gives the ramjet
forwardthrust.

Rockets
In a rocket engine , fuel and a source of oxygen, called an oxidizer, are mixed and exploded
in a combustion chamber. The combustion produces hot exhaust which is passed through a
nozzle to accelerate the flow and produce thrust. For a rocket, the accelerated gas, or working
fluid, is the hot exhaust produced during combustion. This is a different working fluid than
you find in a turbine engine or apropeller powered aircraft. Turbine engines and propellers
use air from the atmosphere as the working fluid, but rockets use the combustion exhaust
gases. In outer space there is no atmosphere so turbines and propellers can not work there.
This explains why a rocket works in space but a turbine engine or a propeller does not work.

There are two main categories of rocket engines; liquid rockets and solid rockets. In a liquid
rocket, the propellants, the fuel and the oxidizer, are stored separately as liquids and are
pumped into the combustion chamber of the nozzle where burning occurs. In a solid rocket,
the propellants are mixed together and packed into a solid cylinder. Under normal
temperature conditions, the propellants do not burn; but they will burn when exposed to a
source of heat provided by an igniter. Once the burning starts, it proceeds until all the
propellant is exhausted

Dept of Aeronautical Engineering, Mangalore Institute of Engineering, (MITE),Moodabidri