76 FUNDAMENTALS OF AERODYNAMICS

center of pressure is rarely given as part of modem airfoil data. On the other hand,
for three-dimensional bodies, such as slender proj ectiles and missiles, the location of
the center of pressure still remains an important quantity, and modem missile data
frequently include x cp ' Therefore, a consideration of center of pressure still retains
its importance when viewed over the whole spectrum of flight vehicles.

'.'3 HISTORICAL NOTE:

AERODYNAMIC COEFFICIENTS

In Section 1.5, we introduced the convention of expressing aerodynamic force in

terms of an aerodynamic coefficient, such as

L = ~Poo V~SCL

and
where Land D are lift and drag, respectively, and eLand CD are the lift coefficient and
drag coefficient, respectively. This convention, expressed in the form shown above,
dates from about 1920. But the use of some type of aerodynamic coefficients goes
back much further. In this section, let us briefly trace the genealogy of aerodynamic
coefficients. For more details, see the author's recent book, A History ofAerodynamics
and Its Impact on Flying Machines (Reference 62).
The first person to define and use aerodynamic force coefficients was Otto Lilien-
thal, the famous German aviation pioneer at the end of the nineteenth century. Inter-
ested in heavier-than-flight from his childhood, Lilienthal carried out the first defini-
tive series of aerodynamic force measurements on cambered (curved) airfoil shapes
using a whirling arm. His measurements were obtained over a period of 23 years, cul-
minating in the publication of his book Der Vogeljiug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst
(Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation) in 1889. Many of the graphs in his book are
plotted in the form that today we identify as a drag polar, i.e., a plot of drag coeffi-
cient versus lift coefficient, with the different data points being measured at angles
of attack ranging from below zero to 90°. Lilienthal had a degree in Mechanical
Engineering, and his work reflected a technical professionalism greater than most at
that time. Beginning in 1891, he put his research into practice by designing several
gliders, and executing over 2000 successful glider flights before his untimely death
in a crash on August 9, 1896. At the time of his death, Lilienthal was working on the
design of an engine to power his machines. Had he lived, there is some conjecture
that he would have beaten the Wright brothers in the race for the first heavier-than-air,
piloted, powered flight.
In his book, Lilienthal introduced the following equations for the normal and axial
forces, which he denoted by Nand T, respectively (for normal and "tangential")

N = 0.131JFV2 [1.60]

and T = 0.13t9FV 2 [1.61 ]

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 AERODYNAMICS: SOME INTRODUCTORY THOUGHTS 77

where, in Lilienthal's notation, F was the reference planform area of the wing in m 2 ,
V is the freestream velocity in mis, and Nand T are in units of kilogram force (the
force exerted on one kilogram of mass by gravity at sea level). The number 0.13 is
Smeaton's coefficient, a concept and quantity stemming from measurements made in
the eighteenth century on flat plates oriented perpendicular to the flow. Smeaton's
coefficient is proportional to the density of the freestream; its use is archaic, and it
went out of favor at the beginning of the twentieth century. By means of Equations
(1.60) and (1.61) Lilienthal introduced the "normal" and "tangential" coefficients, TJ
and e versus angle of attack. A copy of this table, reproduced in a paper by Octave
Chanute in 1897, is shown in Figure 1.50. This became famous as the "Lilienthal
Tables," and was used by the Wright brothers for the design of their early gliders.
It is proven in Reference 62 that Lilienthal did not use Equations (1.60) and (1.61)
explicitly to reduce his experimental data to coefficient form, but rather determined
his experimental values for TJ and e by dividing the experimental measurements for
Nand T by his measured force on the wing at 90° angle of attack. In so doing,
he divided out the influence of uncertainties in Smeaton's coefficient and the veloc-
ity, the former being particularly important because the classical value of Smeaton's
coefficient of O. I3 was in error by almost 40 percent. (See Reference 62 for more de-
tails.) Nevertheless, we have Otto Lilienthal to thank for the concept of aerodynamic
force coefficients, a tradition that has been followed in various modified forms to the
present time.
Following on the heals of Lilienthal, Samuel Langley at the Smithsonian Institu-
tion published whirling arm data for the resultant aerodynamic force R on a flat plate
as a function of angle of attack, using the following equation:

[1.62]

where S is the planform area, k is the more accurate value of Smeaton's coefficient
(explicitly measured by Langley on his whirling arm), and F(a) was the correspond-
ing force coefficient, a function of angle of attack.
The Wright brothers preferred to deal in terms of lift and drag, and used expres-
sions patterned after Lilienthal and Langley to define lift and drag coefficients:

L = kSV 2 C L [1.63]
2
D = kSV C D [1.64]

The Wrights were among the last to use expressions written explicitly in terms of
Smeaton's coefficient k. Gustave Eiffel in 1909 defined a "unit force coefficient"
K i as

[1.65]

In Equation (1.65), Smeaton's coefficient is nowhere to be seen; it is buried in the

direct measurement of K i • (Eiffel, of Eiffel Tower fame, built a large wind tunnel
in 1909, and for the next 14 years reigned as France's leading aerodynamicist until
his death in 1923.) After Eiffel's work, Smeaton's coefficient was never used in the
aerodynamic literature-it was totally passe.

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----------_... _------
 TABLE OF NOtulAL AND TANG~WIAL PRESSURES
Deduced by Lilienthal from the diagrams on Plate VI., in his
book U Bird-flight as the Basis of the Flying Art."

II d f
"
II
AD,Ie. Xonn&l. TupatJaL ADIIe. "
~ormal. TureDtlal•

- 90 ••••••• ‫ס‬.‫ס‬oo +Q.D70 16°•••••••• 0.909 - 0.075

-SO ••••••. 00040 +0.067 17°······· • 0.9 15 -0.073
- i' ....... o.oSo +0.064 18\)••••.••• 0-9 19 -0.0,0
-60 ...•... 0.120 +0..- 19°····· ••• 0-921 -0.c6S
-5° ••••••. 0.160 +0.055 2O
Q
•••••••• 0-922 -0.059
-4° ...··.· 0.200 +00049 21°•••••••• 0-92J -0.053
- 3° •.•••• ' 0.242 +00043 22° •••••••• 0-924 -00047
_ 2° ••••••. 0.z86 +0.037 23°···· •••• 0.924 -00041
_ 1° •••••• ' 0.3J2 +o.oJI 24°••• ••••• 0-923 - 0.0,16
0° ••••••. o.JSI +00024 25°········ 0-922 -0.03
'
+ 1°••••••. 00434 +0.016 26°•••••.•• 0.920 -0.026
+2°••••••. 0.489 +0.008 27°········ 0.9 18 -0.021
+3°.······ 0.546 o.coo 28°•.•.••.• 0.9 15 -0.016
+4°.····· 0.600 -0.007 29°·······. 0.9 12 -0.012
+ S°······ 0.650 -0.014 '7'0•••••••. 0.9 10 -o.ooa
101
+6 •••••• 0.696 -0.021 32°•••.•••• 0.906 o.coo
+ ,e...... 0·737 -0.028 35°········ o.8g6 +0.010
+ SO•••••• 0.77 1 -0.035 40° •• • ••• •• o.S9O +0.016
+9°······ o.8co -o.a.p 45°··· ••••• 0.888 +0.020
100••••• 0.825 -0.050 500•••••••• 0.888 +0.023
11°••••• 0.846 -0.0$8 55°········ o.S9O +0m6
laO••••• 0.864 -0.064 60°••••••• 0.900 +0.028
ItJ···· . 0.879 -00070 70°··· •••• 0.930 +0.030
14°····· 0.891 -00074 SO°••••••• 0.960 +0.01 5
15°····· o.gol -00076 goo••••••• J.lJOO 0.000

Flgur. 1.50 The Lilienthal Table of normal and axial force coefficients. This is a
facsimile of the actual table that was published by Octave Chanute
in an article entitled "Sailing Flight," The Aeronautical Annual,
1897, which was subsequently used by the Wright Brothers,

78

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 AERODYNAMICS: SOME INTRODUCTORY THOUGHTS 79

Gorrell and Martin, in wind tunnel tests carried out in 1917 at MIT on various
airfoil shapes, adopted Eiffel's approach, giving expressions for lift and drag:

L = K,AV 2 [1.66]
D=Kx AV 2 [1.67]

where A denoted planfonn area and K y and K, were the lift and drag coefficients,
respectively. For a short period, the use of K, and K x became popular in the United
States.
However, also by 1917 the density p began to appear explicitly in expressions
for force coefficients. In NACA Technical Report No. 20, entitled "Aerodynamic
Coefficients and Transformation Tables," we find the following expression:

F = CpSV 2

where F is the total force acting on the body, p is the freestream density, and C is the
force coefficient, which was described as "an abstract number, varying for a given
airfoil with its angle of incidence, independent of the choice of units, provided these
are consistently used for all four quantities (F, p, S, and V)."
Finally, by the end of World War I, Ludwig Prandtl at Gottingen University in
Gennany established the nomenclature that is accepted as standard today. Prandtl was
already famous by 1918 for his pioneering work on airfoil and wing aerodynamics,
and for his conception and development of boundary layer theory. (See Section 5.8
for a biographical description ofPrandtl.) Prandtl reasoned that the dynamic pressure,
1 Poo V~ (he called it "dynamical pressure"), was well suited to describe aerodynamic
force. In his 1921 English-language review of works perfonned at Gottingen before
and during World War I (Reference 63), he wrote for the aerodynamic force,

W =cFq [1.68]

where W is the force, F is the area of the surface, q is the dynamic pressure, and c is
a "pure number," i.e., the force coefficient. It was only a short, quick step to express
lift and drag as

L = qooSC L [1.69]
and D = qooSC D [1.70]

where CLand CD are the "pure numbers" referred to by Prandtl (i.e., the lift and drag
coefficients). And this is the way it has been ever since.

1.14 SUMMARY

Refer again to the road map for Chapter I given in Figure 1.6. Read again each
block in this diagram as a reminder of the material we have covered. If you feel
uncomfortable about some of the concepts, or if your memory is slightly "foggy" on
certain points, go back and reread the pertinent sections until you have mastered the
material.

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80 FUNDAMENTALS OF AERODYNAMICS

This chapter has been primarily qualitative, emphasizing definitions and basic
concepts. However, some ofthe more important quantitative relations are summarized
below:

The normal, axial, lift, drag, and moment coefficients for an aerodynamic body can be obtained by integrating
the pressure and skin friction coefficients over the body surface from the leading to the trailing edge. For a
two-dimensional body,

Cn = -;;I [ 10t (Cp,l - Cp,u) dx + 10t ( d Yu

Cf,u dx + Cf,l dy/
dx
)
dx
] [1.15]

Ca =-;;I [ 10t (dYu dy/ )

Cp,ud";-CP,ldx dx+ 10t (Cf,u+Cf,/)dx ] [1.16]

[1.17]

C/ = Cn cosa - Ca sina [1.18]

Cd = Cn sina + Ca cosa [1.10]

The center of pressure is obtained from

[1.20] and [1.21]

The criteria for two or more flows to be dynamically similar are:

I. The bodies and any other solid boundaries must be geometrically similar.
2. The similarity parameters must be the same. Two important similarity parameters are Mach number M = V/ a
and Reynolds number Re = pVC/fL.
If two or more flows are dynamically similar, then the force coefficients CL, CD, etc., are the same.

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