The Anatomy of the Airplane

Darrol StintonPast Senior Visiting Fellow, Loughborough University of Technology, Leicestershire, UKSecond EditionCo-published by: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Reston, VA 20191 and Blackwell Science Ltd, Osney Mead, Oxford, 0X2 OEL, UKAmerican Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Reston, VA 20191ISBN 1-56347-286-4 (softcover: alk. paper)Copyright 1966, 1985, 1998 by Darrol Stinton.THE AUTHORDarrol Stinton MBE, PhD, CEng, FRAeS, FRINA, MIMechE, RAF(Retd) was born in New Zealand and grew upin England. He is a qualified test pilot and aeronautical engineer who worked in the design offices of theBlackburn and De Havilland aircraft companies before joining the RAF. His test flying spanned 35 years andmore than 340 types of aircraft, first as an experimental test pilot at Farnborough; then 20 years asairworthiness certification test pilot for the UK Civil Aviation Authority on light airplanes and seaplanes, beforeturning freelance.He has lectured regularly at the Empire Test Pilots’ School, Loughborough University, the Royal AeronauticalSociety (of which he is a Past Vice President), and the Royal Institution of Naval Architects. His companyspecializes in cross-fertilization between aircraft and marine craft design and operation.ALSO AVAILABLE

The Design of the Airplane

Darrol Stinton 0-632-01 877-1

Flying Qualities and Flight Testing of the Airplane

Darrol Stinton 1-56347-274-0‘If anyone tries to tell you something about an aeroplane which is so damn complicated that you can’tunderstand it you can take it from me it’s all balls.’R. J. Mitchell (1895—1937)Designer of the Supermarine Spitfire

Preface to the First Edition

One should never have too much reverence for ideas, no matter whose they are. Ideas are meant to be kickedaround, stood upon their heads, and looked at backwards in mirrors. It is only in this way that they can grow upin the way that they should, without excessive self-importance. The ideas of one man are the food for thoughtof another. Perhaps Oliver Wendell Holmes had this in mind when he said something to the effect that: ‘Aman's mind stretched by a new idea can never go back to its original dimensions’. And that is the reason forthis book.

The Anatomy of the Aeroplane

was started in 1960 as a set of supplementary notes to the author’sannual lectures on Aero-Structures given at the Empire Test Pilots’ School, at Farnborough in Hampshire. Thelectures were intended to give embryo test pilots an insight into the reasons for aircraft not being shaped inways that fitted the often more elegant theories. In so doing the inherent capabilities and limitations of anaeroplane became more apparent. The capabilities and limitations were seen to be functions of specificrequirements: those formalized statements of human needs that cause aircraft to be made as useful and assafe as possible within the ‘state-of-the-art’ at a given time. The seeming dichotomy of the two worlds of theoryand practice — usually more apparent to the practical man than the academician — is resolved by looking atthe development of an aircraft as a response to a set of requirements.The aim of the book is to show students of aeronautics how requirements affect the application oftheories, causing aeroplanes to be twisted, bent, cambered and kinked, to end up without the flowingperfection of their original, idealized, forms. It is aimed in particular at students in developing countries who,the author has found, are bursting with the desire to learn and assert their own ideas, but who cannot yet gainthe practice they require. To this end a number of specialized subjects are introduced and shown in relation tothe end product of the finished aeroplane. In this way the student will be able to specialize later with some ideaof where his own subject fits into the whole.

The treatment of the subject is such that the reader should be able to reason for himself why everysalient feature of any aeroplane is shaped as it is. In doing this the book will probably make some enemiesamong those who cherish a professional mystique behind which to hide. That does not matter, for the book willhave served its purpose if only one student gets a better feel for his subject than he might otherwise have had.The word aeroplane is used throughout in preference to airplane, or the meaningless plane, for tworeasons. The first is that it is a scholarly word applied to a particular order of a class of aircraft. The second isthat it derives from two Greek words meaning, literally, airwandering. That is excellent, for the word touches inpart upon the spirit of aeronautics and the impulse to wander in the air that made men want to fly in the firstplace. The

Concise Oxford Dictionary

describes an aeroplane as a ‘mechanically-driven heavier-than-airflying-machine’. Taking the definition further: the Glossary of Aeronautical Terms of the British StandardsInstitution defines an aeroplane as ‘a power-driven heavier-than-air aircraft with supporting surfaces fixed forflight’. The name includes landplanes, seaplanes (float-seaplanes and flying boats), and amphibians(float-amphibians and boat-amphibians).Unfortunately, precise definitions of this kind miss out the most beautiful of all winged machines, thatcomes nearer to wandering-in-the-air than any other: the sailplane. For the purposes of this book the definitionwill treat an aeroplane as a heavier-than-air flying-machine with fixed wings (i.e. wings that do not beat the airas a means of propulsion, although they may be moved fore and aft in flight) while avoiding any need tospecify the means of propulsion. There is no great inconsistency in doing so, for the first aeroplanes grew fromkites and gliders, and the sailplane is a highly refined glider.The evolution of powered aeroplanes is such that they outstrip the definition. Since sustained flightbecame a possibility, little more than half a century ago, the performance of the aeroplane has increased morethan one hundred fold. Cruising speeds and heights, range and endurance, carrying capacity and weight (andcomplication) have all increased. In order to fly fast smaller wings are used to achieve optimum efficiency, butsmaller wings bearing heavier loads require more space for take-off and landing, and space is at a premium.This has led, under pressure of military necessity, to the development of short and vertical take-off, STOL andVTOL aeroplanes. We may not like to recognize it, but most significant advances are brought about throughmilitary necessity. And now there are dreams of aeroplanes employing powered lift throughout the wholeenvelope of flight, for cruising as well as for take-off and landing.The scope of the book is broad. Essentially it is a physical textbook, written in five parts, with a numberof additional appendices. These have been added in order to focus attention upon some specific areas ofoperation: supersonic transports, aero-buses, strike and reconnaissance aeroplanes of various kinds. As faras possible early project aeroplanes have been used as illustrations, for these show most clearly the firstthoughts of designers, with little adulteration. Many of the aircraft shown are really in the form of feasibilitystudies — the stage before becoming a project, in which a particular way of doing a job is investigated to see ifit is worth continuing with as a project.Mathematical statements are simple, amounting to little more than 1 + 1 = 2, or 3 = 6/2, and usingsymbols to say so. Although British symbols are used these are defined, and repeated where relevant, so thatthe foreign reader should have no difficulty in converting them to the standard symbols of his own country.Equations are, for the most part, unit-less —although the ft-lb-sec system is used where stated. The reason foravoiding units is that the ideas count more than quantitative results, which belong properly in a handbook ofaircraft design. Some basic calculus symbols are used, but it is only necessary to know what is meant by

Δ

xand dx when they appear.A significant departure from standard works on aerodynamics is that to explain the nature ofaerodynamic phenomena and forces aeroplanes are considered in motion through the air, instead of the usualreverse. There is plenty of time for the reader to come round to the conservative point of view, of visualizing anaircraft somehow motionless in space, with air flowing past it. This view has been deliberately rejected, notonly because aeroplanes do not fly that way, but because certain concepts — like circulation, and its effectupon aerodynamic forces — are more readily understandable if one goes straight to the point of trying to seewhat really happens to the air. Furthermore, stability and control (neither of which are easily mastered if one isnot happy with textbook mathematics) become simpler when seen as the pilot sees them: as properties of amachine that, under his hands, seems to be alive as it moves through apparently living air.The author is indebted to a large number of people who, directly and indirectly, have either helped byproviding material, or have helped with the play of ideas thrown up as the book was written. Among these arethree test pilots: Wing Commander N. F. Harrison DSO, AFC, RAF, Don Wright, and Squadron Leader G. M.Morrison, RAF. Others are Ernest Stott, the artist: Squadron Leader J. H. Maguire, MBE, RAF, CharlesGibbs-Smith (who provided the copy of the Sir George Cayley medallion), Derek Dempster, Alastair Pugh, DrM. H. L. Waters, W. T. Gunston, W. W. Coles, and D. Howe of the College of Aeronautics. Thanks are alsodue to the Blackburn and De Havilland Divisions of Hawker Siddeley Aviation Ltd, Bristol Siddeley EnginesLtd, the British Aircraft Corporation, Short Brothers and Harland Ltd, The Royal Aeronautical Society, Air etCosmos, Flight International, Interavia, Shell Aviation News, and the Air Registration Board.It should be noted that the views expressed are those of the author. The book does not reflect anypolicy or opinion of either Her Majesty’s Government or the Royal Air Force.

Darrol StintonMattingley, 1966

Preface to the Second Edition

Since 1966, when this book — which became known widely as

The Anatomy

— was first published,developments and changes in the world of aviation have been vast. Most significantly the Cold War hasended, empires have crumbled, the shapes and centers of gravity of states have shifted. Former large andimportant aircraft companies, synonymous with past progress and national survival, have merged with or beendevoured by newly formed international and other conglomerates.Famous family names have disappeared. Political and industrial change has brought new possibilities,the effects of which, both favorable and adverse, can only be guessed. In the UK the Royal AircraftEstablishment at Farnborough, which served both military and civil contractors, is no more. It has beenreplaced by the Defence Evaluation Research Agency (DERA).The once supreme pair of airworthiness authorities — in 1966 the Air Registration Board (ARB) in theUK (which became the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) early in the 1970s) and the Federal AviationAdministration (FAA) in the USA — have been joined by the complex European Joint Aviation Authorities(JAA), of which the CAA is now part. Authorities elsewhere, in Canada and Australia for example, take nationalinitiatives with consequences on a world scale of utmost importance for operators, manufacturers of enginesand airframes, which cannot be ignored by the JAA, CAA and the FAA.Among outstanding civil successes are three of many. The first has been that of the Anglo— FrenchConcorde which in the first edition was only an elegant shape. Now, just as elegant as any current project, andin spite of back-biting and lightweight criticism, it has been in safe service for more than 20 years, with no endto its operational life in sight as this is written. Second is that men and women have flown into Earth orbit,worked in space, and returned in the Shuttle — a powered aeroplane outbound and a dead-stick gliderinbound. Third is the round-the-world non-stop flight of Burt Rutan’s canard and twin-boom Voyager, cruisingon its rear engine and crewed by co-builders, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager. Other developments includesuccessful man-powered flight.That is not the end of it, because there is now the powerful microlight aeroplane movement; and the

parapente

(French — a para-glider inflated wing with a lightweight motor); and massive homebuilt aircraftmovement which experiments with man-made materials, and new types. Within that movement people likeBurt Rutan and Jim Bede have been a moving force. The air is now within reach of the individual as neverbefore.The historic, classic and vintage aircraft movements thrive in Europe, America and Australasia, withair-shows coming second only to football as the most popular spectator sport.Civil aeroplanes have grown in size with the trend towards fewer and larger turbofan engines, even forlong-haul operations, instead of three or four smaller turbojets or turbofans. The turboprop — a tiny jewel of agas-generating jet engine turning a propeller — is now used more commonly where the piston propeller engineonce reigned supreme. Turboprops are super-reliable high cost units compared with piston-propeller engines.Reliability and high cost force operators and manufacturers to argue seriously the case for public transportcertification by the airworthiness authorities of relatively large aircraft containing nine, ten, or more people,hauled behind a single turboprop. There are arguments on both sides, but it looks like the authorities will yieldto urging from the market place.On the military scene, while the heavy V-bomber conversion, together with converted airliners, remainsrelevant as a tanker for in-flight refueling, the age of the 'smart’, the ‘fire-and-forget’ projectile, bomb and mineis with us. One relatively small bomb, placed with pinpoint accuracy by laser target-marking, delivered by atwo-seat aeroplane no larger than a jetfighter, can today do at least as much to neutralize an enemy as 1000bombers, propelled by 4000 piston-propeller engines and manned by 10000 aircrew in 1944. Couple this within-flight refueling over continental ranges and a small aeroplane, once regarded as tactical, can deliver astrategic punch.Powered (jet) lift, still in operational infancy 30 years ago, had revitalized the aircraft carrier. First camevertical take-off and landing (VTOL). Now, using conventional runways, or modified flight decks on warshipsno larger than light cruisers or large destroyers of World War II, one may create agile, stealthy aeroplanes withthrust vectoring, which further combine heavier load-carrying with short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL).The technology of flying controls has changed everything. We use the term 'high-order’ (advanced)flying controls, meaning those which employ fly-by-wire, or fly-by-light, using fiber optics and 'active controls’(constantly moving) to replace stability. Such controls rely upon one or more computers, interposed betweenthe pilot and the aircraft. They are expensive, special-purpose systems, not found on light or other subsonicaircraft.Fresh concepts abound and there are new terms to describe applications of older physics in the main