Problems 436

- -. Fundamentals ofAerodynamics, 5th ed. McGraw-Hill, New York, 2011.

Dommasch, D. 0., S. S. Sherbey, and T. F. Connolly. Airplane Aerodynamics, 4th ed.
Pitman, New York, 1968.
Hallion, R. Supersonic Flight (The Story of the Bell X-1 and Douglas D-558).
Macmillan, New York, 1972.
McCormick, B. W. Aerodynamics, Aeronautics, and Flight Mechanics. Wiley, New
York, 1979.
Pierpont, P. K. "Bringing Wings of Change," Astronautics and Aeronautics, vol. 13,
no. 10, October 1975, pp. 20--27.
Shapiro, A. H. Shape and Flow: The Fluid Dynamics ofDrag. Anchor, Garden City,
NY,l961.
Shevell, R. S. Fundamentals ofFlight. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1983.
von Karman, T. (with Lee Edson). The Wind and Beyond (an autobiography). Little,
Brown, Boston, 1967.

Problems
5.1 By the method of dimensional analysis, derive the expression M = q~ Sec., for
the aerodynamic moment on an airfoil, where cis the chord and c,. is the moment
coefficient.
5.2 Consider an infinite wing with a NACA 1412 airfoil section and a chord length
of 3 ft. The wing is at an angle of attack of 5° in an airflow velocity of 100 ftls
at standard sea-level conditions. Calculate the lift, drag, and moment about the
quarter-chord per unit span.
5.3 Consider a rectangular wing mounted in a low-speed subsonic wing tunnel. The
wing model completely spans the test-section so that the flow "sees" essentially
an infinite wing. If the wing has a NACA 23012 airfoil section and a chord of
0.3 m, calculate the lift, drag, and moment about the quarter-chord per unit span
when the airflow pressure, temperature, and velocity are 1 atm, 303 K, and 42 m/s,
respectively. The angle of attack is 8°.
5.4 The wing model in Prob. 5.3 is pitched to a new angle of attack, where the lift
on the entire wing is measured as 200 N by the wind tunnel force balance. If the
wingspan is 2 m, what is the angle of attack?
5.5 Consider a rectangular wing with a NACA 0009 airfoil section spanning the test
section of a wind tunnel. The test-section airflow conditions are standard sea level
with a velocity of 120 milh. The wing is at an angle of attack of 4°, and the wind
tunnel force balance measures a lift of29.5 lb. What is the area of the wing?
5.6 The ratio of lift to drag liD for a wing or airfoil is an important aerodynamic
parameter; indeed, it is a direct measure of the aerodynamic efficiency of the
wing. If a wing is pitched through a range of angle of attack,[)D first increases,
then goes through a maximum, and then decreases. Consider an infinite wing with
an NACA 2412 airfoil. Estimate the maximum value of liD. Assume that the
Reynolds number is 9 x 106 •
5.7 Consider an airfoil in a free stream with a velocity of 50 m/s at standard sea-level
conditions. At a point on the airfoil, the pressure is 9.5 x 104 N/m2 • What is the
pressure coefficient at this point?
438 CHAPTER 6 Airfoils, Wings. and Other Aerodynamic Shapes

5.8 Consider a low-speed airplane flying at a velocity of 55 rn!s. If the velocity at a

point on the fuselage is 62 m/s, what is the pressure coefficient at this point?
5.9 Consider a wing mounted in the test-section of a subsonic wind tunnel. The
velocity of the airflow is 160 ftls. If the velocity at a point on the wing is 195 ftls,
what is the pressure coefficient at this point?
5.10 Consider the same wing in the same wind tunnel as in Prob. 5.9. If the test-section
air temperature is 51 0°R and the flow velocity is increased to 700 ft/s, what is the
pressure coefficient at the same point?
5.11 Consider a wing in a high-speed wind tunnel. At a point on the wing, the velocity
is 850 ftls. If the test-section flow is at a velocity of780 ftls, with a pressure and
temperature of 1 atm and 505°R, respectively, calculate the pressure coefficient at
the point.
5.12 If the test-section flow velocity in Prob. 5.11 is reduced to 100 ft/s, what will the
pressure coefficient become at the same point on the wing?
5.13 Consider an NACA 1412 airfoil at an angle of attack of 4°. If the free-stream
Mach number is 0.8, calculate the lift coefficient.
5.14 An NACA 4415 airfoil is mounted in a high-speed subsonic wind tunnel. The lift
coefficient is measured as 0.85. If the test-section Mach number is 0.7, at what
angle of attack is the airfoil?
5.15 Consider an airfoil at a given angle of attack, say a1• At low speeds, the minimum
pressure coefficient on the top surface of the airfoil is --o.90. What is the critical
Mach number of the airfoil?
5.16 Consider the airfoil in Prob. 5.15 at a smaller angle of attack, say ~.At low
speeds, the minimum pressure coefficient is - 0.65 at this lower angle of attack.
What is the critical Mach number of the airfoil?
5.17 Consider a uniform flow with a Mach number of2. What angle does a Mach wave
make with respect to the flow direction?
5.18 Consider a supersonic missile flying at Mach 2.5 at an altitude of 10 km
(see Fig. P5.18). Assume that the angle of the shock wave from the nose is
approximated by the Mach angle (this is a very weak shock). How far behind the
nose of the vehicle will the shock wave impinge upon the ground? (Ignore the fact
that the speed of sound, and hence the Mach angle, changes with altitude.)

I
h = 10 Jan

I d

5.19 The wing area of the Lockheed F-104 straight-wing supersonic fighter is
approximately 210 ft2• If the airplane weighs 16,000 1b and is flying in level
 Problems 437

flight at Mach 2.2 at a standard altitude of 36,000 ft, estimate the wave drag on
the wings.
5.20 Consider a fiat plate at an angle of attack of2° in a Mach 2.2 airflow. (Mach 2.2 is
the cruising Mach number of the Concorde supersonic transport.) The length
of the plate in the flow direction is 202 ft, which is the length of the Concorde.
Assume that the free-stream conditions correspond to a standard altitude of
50,000 ft. The total drag on this plate is the sum of wave drag and skin friction
drag. Assume that a turbulent boundaxy layer exists over the entire plate. The
results given in Ch. 4 for skin friction coefficients hold for incompressible flow
only; there is a compressibility effect on C1 such that its value decreases with
increasing Mach number. Specifically, at Mach 2.2 assume that the C1 given in
Ch. 4 is reduced by 20 percent.
a. Given all the preceding information, calculate the total drag coefficient for
the plate.
b. If the angle of attack is increased to 5°, assuming that C1 stays the same,
calculate the total drag coefficient.
c. For these cases, what can you conclude about the relative influence of wave
drag and skin friction drag?
5.21 The Cessna Cardinal, a single-engine light plane, has a wing with an area of
16.2 m2 and an aspect ratio of7.3l. Assume that the span efficiency factor is
0.62. If the airplane is flying at standard sea-level conditions with a velocity of
251 km/h, what is the induced drag when the total weight is 9800 N?
5.22 For the Cessna Cardinal in Prob. 5.21, calculate the induced drag when the
velocity is 85.5 kmlh (stalling speed at sea level with flaps down).
5.23 Consider a finite wing with an area and aspect ratio of21.5 m2 and 5, respectively
(this is comparable to the wing on a Gates Learjet, a twin-jet executive transport).
Assume that the wing has a NACA 65-210 airfoil, a span efficiency factor of 0.9,
and a profile drag coefficient of0.004. If the wing is at a 6° angle of attack,
calculate CL and CD.
5.24 During the 1920s and early 1930s, the NACA obtained wind tunnel data on
different airfoils by testing finite wings with an aspect ratio of 6. These data were
then "corrected" to obtain infinite-wing airfoil characteristics. Consider such a
finite wing with an area and aspect ratio of 1.5 ft2· and 6, respectively, mounted in
a wind tunnel where the test-section flow velocity is 100 ftls at standard sea-level
conditions. When the wing is pitched to a = - 2°, no lift is measured. When the
wing is pitched to a = 10°, a lift of 17.9 lb is measured. Calculate the lift slope for
the airfoil (the infinite wing) if the span effectiveness factor is 0.95.
5.25 A finite wing of area 1.5 ft2 and aspect ratio of 6 is tested in a subsonic wind
tunnel at a velocity of 130 ftls at standard sea-level conditions. At an angle
of attack of - 1°, the measured lift and drag are 0 and O.l8llb, respectively.
At an angle of attack of2°, the lift and drag are measured as 5.0 and 0.23 lb,
respectively. Calculate the span efficiency factor .and the infinite-wing lift slope.
5.26 Consider a light, single-engine airplane such as the Piper Super Cub. If the maximum
gross weight of the airplane is 7780 N, the wing area is 16.6 m2, and the maximum
lift coefficient is 2.1 with flaps down, calculate the .stalling speed at sea level.
5.27 The airfoil on the Lockheed F-1 04 straight-wing supersonic fighter is a thin,
symmetric airfoil with a thickness ratio of3.5 percent. Consider this airfoil in a
438 CHAPTER 6 Airfoils, Wings. and Other Aerodynamic Shapes

flow at an angle of attack of 5°. The incompressible lift coefficient for the airfoil
is given approximately by c1 = 21ta, where a is the angle of attack in radians.
Estimate the airfoil lift coefficient for (a) M = 0.2, (b) M = 0.7, and (c) M = 2.0.
5.28 The whirling-arm test device used in 1804 by Sir George Cayley is shown in
Figure 1.7. Cayley was the first person to make measurements of the lift on
inclined surfaces. In his 1804 notebook, he wrote that on a fiat surface moving
through the air at 21.8 ftls at 3° angle of attack, a lift force of 1 ounce was
measured. The fiat surface was a 1 ft by 1 ft square. Calculate the lift coefficient
for this condition. Compare this measured value with that predicted by the
expression for lift coefficient for a fiat-plate airfoil in incompressible flow given
by Ct = 21t ~ where a is in radians. What are the reasons for the differences in the
two results? (See Anderson, A History ofAerodynamics and Its Impact on Flying
Machines, Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 68-71, for a detailed discussion
of this matter.)
5.29 Consider a finite wing at an angle of attack of 6°. The normal and axial force
coefficients are 0.8 and 0.06, respectively. Calculate the corresponding lift and
drag coefficients. What comparison can you make between the lift and normal
force coefficients?
5.30 Consider a finite wing with an aspect of ratio of7; the airfoil section of the wing is
a symmetric airfoil with an infinite-wing lift slope of 0.11 per degree. The lift-to-
drag ratio for this wing is 29 when the lift coefficient is equal to 0.35. If the angle
of attack remains the same and the aspect ratio is simply increased to 10 by adding
extensions to the span of the wing, what is the new value of the lift-to-drag ratio?
Assume that the span efficiency factors e = e1 = 0.9 for both cases.
5.31 Consider a fiat plate oriented at a 90° angle of attack in a low-speed
incompressible flow. Assume that the pressure exerted over the front of the plate
(facing into the flow) is a constant value over the front surface, equal to the
stagnation pressure. Assume that the pressure exerted over the back of the plate
is also a constant value, but equal to the free-stream static pressure. (In reality,
these assumptions are only approximations to the real flow over the plate. The
pressure over the front face is neither exactly constant nor exactly equal to the
stagnation pressure, and the pressure over the back of the plate is neither constant
nor exactly equal to the free-stream pressure. The preceding approximate model of
the flow, however, is useful for our purpose here.) Note that the drag is essentially
all pressure drag; due to the 90° orientation of the plate, skin friction drag is not
a factor. For this model of the flow, prove that the drag coefficient for the fiat
plate is CD = 1.
5.32 In some aerodynamic literature, the drag of an airplane is couched in terms of the
"drag area" instead of the drag coefficient. By definition, the drag area,/, is the
area of a fiat plate at 90° to the flow that has a drag force equal to the drag of the
airplane. As part of this definition, the drag coefficient of the plate is assumed to
be equal to 1, as shown in Prob. 5.31. If CD is the drag coefficient of the airplane
based on wing planform areaS, prove thatf = CnS.
5.33 One of the most beautifully streamlined airplanes ever designed is the North
American P-51 Mustang shown in Fig. 4.46. The Mustang has one of the lowest
minimum drag coefficients of any airplane in history: CD = 0.0163. The wing
planform area of the Mustang is 233 ft2. Using the resultfromProb. 5.32, show
that the drag area for the Mustang is 3.8 ft2; that is, drag on the whole P-51
 Problems 439

airplane is the same as the drag on a :flat plate perpendicular to the :flow of an area
of only 3.8 ft2.
5.34 Consider an NACA 2412 airfoil in a low-speed :flow at zero degrees angle of
attack and a Reynolds numberof8.9 x 106. Calculate the percentage of drag
from pressure drag due to :flow separation (form drag). Assume a fully turbulent
boundary layer over the airfoil. Assume that the airfoil is thin enough that the
skin-friction drag can be estimated by the :flat-plate results discussed inCh. 4.
5.35 Repeat Problem 5.34, assuming that the airfoil is at an angle of attack of 6
degrees. What does this tell you about the rapid increase in c4 as the angle of
attack of the airfoil is increased?
5.36 Returning to the conditions of Problem 5.34, where the boundary layer was
assumed to be fully turbulent, let us now consider the real situation where the
boundary layer starts out as laminar, and then makes a transition to turbulent
somewhere downstream of the leading edge. Assume a transition Reynolds
number of 500,000. For this case, calculate the percentage of drag that is due to
:flow separation (form drag).
5.37 Here we continue in the vein of Probs. 5.34-5.36, except we examine a thicker
airfoil and look at the relative percentages of skin friction and pressure drag for
a thicker airfoil. Estimate the skin friction drag coefficient for the NACA 2415
airfoil in low-speed incompressible :flow at Re = 9 x 106 and zero angle of attack
for (a) a laminar boundary layer, and (b) a turbulent boundary layer. Compare the
results with the experimentally measured section drag coefficient given in App. D
for the NACA 2415 airfoil. What does this tell you about the relative percentages
of pressure drag and skin friction drag on the airfoil for each case?
5.38 In reality, the boundary layer on the airfoil discussed in Prob. 5.37 is neither fully
laminar nor fully turbulent. The boundary layer starts out as laminar, and then
transitions to turbulent at some point downstream of the leading edge (see the
discussion in Sec. 4.19.) Assume that the critical Reynolds number for transition
is 650,000. Calculate the skin friction drag coefficient on the NACA 2415 airfoil,
and compare your result with the experimental section drag coefficient in App. D.
Note: You will find from the answer to this problem that 86 percent of the airfoil
section drag coefficient is due to skin friction and 14 percent due to pressure drag
from :flow separation. Comparing this answer with the result ofProb. 5.36, which
pertains to a thinner airfoil, we find that the pressure drag is a higher percentage
for the thicker airfoil. However, for airfoils in general, the pressure drag is still a
small percentage of the total drag. This drag breakdown is somewhat typical for
airfoils at small angles of attack. By intent, the streamlined shape of airfoils results
in small pressure drag, typically on the order of 15 percent of the total drag.
5.39 This problem examines the cause and effect of a lower Re on airfoil drag. Repeat
Prob. 5.38, except for Re = 3 x 1()6. Comment on how and why Re affects the
drag. Note: From the answer to this question, you will see that the lower Re
results in a higher percentage of skin friction drag than found at the higher Re in
Prob. 5.38, and hence a lower percentage of pressure drag on the airfoil section.