AFOQT Aviation Information, All components & Explanation. Complete study guide

AFOQT Aviation Information, All components & Explanation. Complete study guide fixed-wing aircraft structure - 1. Fuselage 2. Wings 3. Tail assembly or empennage 4. Landing gear 5. Powerplant 6. Flight instruments/controls and control surfaces fuselage - body of an airplane. Contains the cockpit, the cabin, the cargo area if there is one, and attachment points for other major airplane components, such as wings, tail section, and landing gear. cockpit - from which the pilots and the flight crew control the aircraft's operations Two design types of fuselage construction - 1. truss 2. monocoque Truss construction fuselages - use steel or aluminum tubing in a series of triangular shapes (called trusses) to get the necessary strength and rigidity monocoque designs - use bulkheads, stringers, (running the length of the fuselage) and formers (perpendicular to stringers) of various sizes and shapes to support a stretched or "stressed" skin wings - airfoils attached to each side of the fuselage that serve as the main lifting surfaces supporting the airplane in flight. airfoil - an aircraft part or surface (such as wing, propeller blade, or rudder) that controls lift, direction, stability, thrust, or propulsion for the aircraft. monoplanes - airplanes with one set of wings biplanes - airplanes with two sets of wings cantilever wing - requires no external bracing, getting its support from internal wing spars, ribs, and stringers, as well as the construction of the wing's skin or covering semi-cantilever wing - requires both internal bracing and external support from struts attached to the fuselage ailerons - extend from about the middle of the wing out toward the wingtip; they move in opposite directions to create aerodynamic forces that cause the airplane to roll flaps - extend outward from near where the wing joins the fuselage (called the wing root) to about the middle of the wing's trailing edge. The flaps are usually flush with the rest of the wing surface when cruising flight; when they are extended, the flaps move downward together to increase the lift of the wing for takeoffs and landings. Most common high lift devices. chord line - the distance from the leading edge of the wing to the trailing edge. Cuts the airfoil into an upper surface and a lower surface mean camber line - if we plot the points that lie halfway between the upper and lower surfaces, we obtain a curve called the mean camber line. camber - the maximum difference between the the mean camber line and the chord line. A measure of the curvature of the airfoil. thickness - the maximum difference between the upper and lower surfaces wingtips - the ends of the wings wingspan - the distance from one wingtip to the other a planform - the shape of the wing viewed from above dihedral angle - when the left and right wings aren't truly horizontal to the fuselage, but instead meet at this angle. Built into the design for roll stability; a wing with some dihedral will naturally return to its original position if it encounters a slight displacement Three basic wing types on modern airplanes - 1. straight 2. Sweep 3. Delta Straight wings - mostly found on small, low-speed airplanes, as well as gliders and sailplanes. These wings give the most efficient lift at low speeds, but are not very good for high speed flight, especially that approaching the speed of sound swept wings - (either forward swept or swept back) is the most common design for modern high speed airplanes. Creates less drag than straight wing designs, but is somewhat more unstable at low speeds. moderate sweep - commercial jetliner, resulting in less drag while maintaining stability at lower speeds fighter planes have wings with... - a greater sweep, which do not generate much lift during low-speed flight and require relatively high speed take-offs and landings delta wings - looks like a large triangle viewed from above. It has a high angle of sweep with a straight trailing edge. Airplanes with this type of wing design are designed to reach supersonic speeds, and also land at high speeds. landing gear - provide the most support for the airplane when it is on the ground. Usually consists of three wheels or sets of wheels. Can be retractable or non-retractable. retractable gear - can be mechanically pulled up into a cavity designed for them, with a door or doors closing over the opening to reduce drag and improve the airplane's performance nonretractable landing gear - usually have fairings over their top half to reduce drag and improve the airplane's performance conventional landing gear/tailwheel airplanes - landing gear using a tailwheel/ planes that have such landing gear tricycle landing gear - designs with the third wheel under the nose (a nosewheel) powerplant - in a propeller driven plane, usually considered to include both the engine and the propeller engine - the primary function is to turn the propeller, but it also generates electrical power, provide a vacuum source for some flight instruments, and provides a heat source for pilot and passengers in most small single-engine planes. fixed-pitch propeller - pitch has a blade angle that can't be changes by the pilot. The propeller is connected directly to the engine's crankshaft; engine power rotates the crankshaft as well as the propeller, and the propeller converts the engine's rotary power into thrust variable pitch propeller (constant-speed propeller) - more efficient because the pilot can adjust the blade angle for most efficient operation how jet engines work - forcing incoming air into a tube or cylinder where the air is compressed, mixed with fuel, burned, and pushed exhausted at high speed to generate thrust. afterburner - a tube placed between the turbine and the rear exhaust nozzle where additional fuel is added to the flow and ignited to provide increased thrust. They greatly increase fuel comsumption, so they can only be used for short periods tail assembly/empennage - includes the entire tail section, which consists of both fixed and movable control surfaces. The fixed surfaces are the vertical and horizontal stabilizers, and the movable surfaces include the elevators, the rudder, and any trim tabs elevators - movable control surfaces attached to the back or the trailing edge of the horizontal stabilizers; they are used to move the nose of the airplane up or down during flight. rudder - a movable control surface attached to the back of the vertical stabilizer that is used to move the airplane's nose left and right during flight. Used in combination with the ailerons for turns while the airplane is flying. Controls the airplane's movement around its vertical axis, or yaw. trim tabs - small movable segments of the trailing edge of the rudder, elevators, and ailerons. Controlled by the pilot in the cockpit, they reduce control pressures and decrease the pilot's workload. Newton's First Law of Motion (or inertia) - maintains that a body at rest ends to remain at rest, and a body in motion tends to remain in motion (at the same speed and in the same direction) unless it acted upon by an outside force. Nothing in nature starts or stops moving until some outside force causes it to do so. Inertia - the property by which an object resists being accelerated in some different way from its current state Newton's Second Law of Motion - the equation F=ma, where F is the force acted upon an object, m stands for an objects mass, and a is the object's acceleration. When an object is acted upon by a force, its resulting acceleration is directly proportional to the applied force and inversely proportional to the mass of the object. Force must be applied to overcome the inertia of an object: The greater the mass of an object, the greater the force needed to produce a particular acceleration. Newton's Third Law of Motion - For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When one object exerts a force on a second object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite force on the first object Universal gravitation - Newton. Says that two objects attract each other with a force that is proportional to the product of their masses, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. This attraction is commonly known as gravity. gravity - accounts for the weight of an object on earth, and usually measures the pull of the large body (in this case, the Earth) in pounds or kilograms mass - a constant that is unaffected by local gravitational conditions weight - a function of the planet's gravity at that point. Can vary depending on where you are (ex: earth, the moon, outer space)